The Tactical Edge: Surviving High-Risk Patrol 093587805X, 9780935878059

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Tactical Edge

Satire High-Risk 1a ge)

by CHARLES REMSBERG author of STREET SURVIVAL: Tactics for Armed Encounters

photography and design by DENNIS ANDERSON

3

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

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Tactical Edge

I like the edge, the challenge. I get a high off it. You’re out there in the concrete jungle or the cornfield jungle. You know the guy you’re up against has no regard for authority or society. He doesn’t care about you. But he knows he’s got to go, and you've got to get him. I like the element of danger. It makes me feel alive. But I don’t expose myself to danger blatantly. I’m not going to give anybody the opportunity to get even just a little bit of me if I can help it. Going up against danger and coming out whole because I’m prepared tactically, that’s what the rush comes from. My dad used to say there are no new frontiers...they’ve all been explored. But in our society, there’s still one: the street. It’s the only place you can be that has any edge to it.... —Sgt. Dean

Ray, Savannah,

Georgia,

survivor of an armed confrontation with a mentally deranged suspect who had slashed a man’s chest open with a razor.

Tactical The

Edge

— Surviving High-Risk Patrol

by CHARLES REMSBERG author of STREET SURVIVAL:

Tactics for Armed Encounters

photography and design by DENNIS ANDERSON ED

-( “py

)) Calibre Press - Northbrook, IL

Copyright © 1986 by Calibre Press, Inc.

First printing: January,

1986

Second printing: May, 1986 Third printing: December, 1986 Fourth printing: October, 1987 Fifth printing: December, 1988 Sixth printing: October, 1989 Seventh printing: July, 1990

All rights reserved. It is a Federal offense to reproduce or transmit any portion of this book in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photographing, photocopying, recording or videotaping, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by: CALIBRE

PRESS, INC.

666 Dundee Road Suite 1607 Northbrook, Illinois 60062 (800) 323-0037 (708) 498-5680 Fax: (708) 498-6869 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 85-73162 ISBN Number: 0-935878-05-X

The author, advisors and publisher accept no liability whatsoever for any injuries to person or property resulting from the application or adoption " any of the procedures, tactics or considerations presented or implied in this book. Printed in the United States of America

For those officers who want to win

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CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction

I.

THE MENTAL

EDGE

. Mental Conditioning

13

—_

The Mind/Body Partnership...Stress Response...Relaxation Response...Positive “Self-Talk”...Crisis Rehearsal... Your Survival Resource...Awareness

Spectrum

2. Tactical Thinking

53

Threat Assessment... Thought Processes...Analyzing a Tactic

Il.

THE TACTICAL

EDGE

3. Building Searches

81

Enter...or Wait?...Principles Of Movement...Stairways... Hallways...Doorways...Softening” Rooms...Real World Adaptations. ..Canine Considerations

4. Barricaded Subjects

157

Identifying “the Problem” ...Manipulation...Escalation of Response...Team Movement...Chemical Agents...Sniper Control...Entry

5. Armed Robbery Response

23

Approach and Deployment... Verification...Confrontation... Inside Tactics...Money Escorts

6. Vehicle Stops

271

Assessing Risk...Threat Zones...Searches...Extractions... Problem Vehicles. ..High-Risk Stops...Biker Runs. ..Off-Duty Considerations

7. Domestic Disturbances Cycle of Violence...Unexpected Approach. ..Tactical Calming ...Arrest Strategy...“Getting Through the Night”... Safe Departure...Officer Disputants...Bar Fights

349

389

8. Hostage Officers Dynamics of Confrontation... .Dialogue...Escape...Handcuff Defeat...“Hideout” Weapons...Persuasion

Ill. THE FORCE

EDGE

9, Physical Control

423

The Force Continuum...Yes/Maybe/No People...Three D's... Tactical Positioning...Escort Control...Pressure Points... Countermeasures...Neck Restraint...Tactical Handcuffing... Mopping Up

IV.

KEEPING THE EDGE

10. Keeping the Edge

513

Officer Don A. Hull...Sergeant Don Roberts...Officer Estelle Jurasz...Deputy Chris Smith...Ranger John W. Dickerson... Sergeant A.C. Hart...Officer James Jastram

Additional Reading

535

About the Author and the Photographer

541

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The thinking and experiences of hundreds of individuals have helped to shape the content of this book. Most have had extensive firsthand involvement with high-risk situations. All are dedicated to the advancement of law enforcement training, and particularly the cause of officer survival. Research for The Tactical Edge began in 1980 after the publication and enthusiastic reception of the book, Street Survival: Tactics for Armed Encounters and the creation of the Street Survival® Seminar. Assured that whatever they shared would be used strictly within the law enforcement family in an on-going effort to save lives, officers, trainers, administrators and other interested professionals from throughout the world graciously responded with an inundation of letters, lesson plans, clippings, case reports, photographs, sketches, tapes, phone calls, demonstrations, Seminar questionnaire replies, invitations to training ses-

sions and probing personal interviews. Overflowing files quickly expanded far beyond any initial anticipation...and so did the challenge of distilling the tactical wisdom from all those sources into some manageable and useful form. The last two years have been devoted intensely to that demanding task. Some of those who helped have asked to remain anonymous. Also, anonymity has been granted to the officers and agencies involved in the case histories used to underscore tactical concepts. This is done in respect for privacy, not because the incidents are without documentation. To all these unnamed collaborators, including those who have lost their lives for lack of effective survival options—and to all others whose valuable assistance should be but inadvertently is not acknowledged— goes my deep appreciation. Eight reviewers critiqued this book in full before its final editing, in some cases spending more than 100 hours detailing recommended alterations. They were selected for their long-standing commitment to officer survival and their breadth of knowledge about high-risk patrol tactics. Some were also interviewed at length on subjects ranging from chemical agent delivery to control of barroom brawls. The reviewers are: Sergeant Larry Hahn of the Waterloo (IA) Police Department; Sergeant Wayne Corcoran of the Phoenix (AZ) Police Department; Sergeant Steve Gibbs of the Marion County (IN) Sheriff’s Department;

Sergeant A. C. Hart of the Minneapolis (MN) Police Department; Captain Mark Stephens, assistant provost marshal operations officer for law enforcement activity, United States Army, Fort Polk, LA;

Deputy Brian Stover of the Los Angeles County (CA) Sheriff's Department, and Bill Groce, supervisor of firearms and tactical operations for the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy. Patrolman David Lendzian, a seasoned street officer with the New

York City Police Department, also reviewed The Tactical Edge in manuscript form and offered numerous valuable suggestions for improvement. In addition, he prepared a series of specially commissioned manuscripts and research reports that supplied fresh ideas about survival attitudes, armed robbery responses, domestic disturbance calls, hand-to-hand combat and firearms

proficiency. Certain other individuals also served as major sources of specialized information, and in some cases they, too, reviewed portions of the manuscript. The special consultants include: Psychologist William J. Lewinski, assistant professor in the law enforcement program at Mankato (MN) State University, who offered perceptive insights about body language, negotiation and mediation skills, the motivations and manipulation of barricaded subjects and the dynamics of domestic disturbances; Kevin Parsons, director of the Justice System Training Association and one of the nation’s foremost expert witnesses, who contributed stimulating ideas on the use of force and many innovative concepts from his R.I.S.C. Management System of Defensive Tactics; Sergeant Gary T. Klugiewicz, defensive tactics coordinator for the Milwaukee County (WI) Sheriff’s Department and world-class competitor in “knock-down” karate, whose development of Countermeasures and several new verbalization concepts and enthusiastic demonstrations of other realistic defensive tactics provided the foundation for much of the chapter on physical control; Psychologist Roger Solomon of the Colorado Springs (CO) Police Department, whose shared his vast knowledge of officer stress, postshooting effects, relaxation techniques and mental imagery and his original concept, the Survival Resource; Social Psychologist E Barry Schreiber, associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at St. Cloud (MN) State University, and Donald W. Rabon, instructor/coordinator at the North Carolina Justice Academy, who helped formulate key tactical and verbal considerations for safely controlling domestic disturbances; W. Fred Pickler, of Wilmington, North Carolina, a specialist in high-risk patrol tactics and chemical munitions, whose unsurpassed knowledge of chemical agents served to clarify many points of confusion

and contradiction about that complex topic; Gerald M. Smith, training coordinator, Smith & Wesson Academy, Springfield, Massachusetts, and Undersheriff David Sikes of the Clear Creek County (CO) Sheriff’s Department, who offered important observations on body language and verbal skills related to physical control; Dr. William G. Farlow, Jr., of Rochester, New York, whose knowl-

edge about the effects of high-powered rifle rounds on the human

anatomy made an invaluable contribution to the understanding of proper

sniper tactics; James Lindell, supervisor of physical training for the Kansas City (MO) Police Department

Regional Training Academy,

whose dogged

physiological research is reflected in the description of proper neck restraints;

Sergeant Dean Ray of the Chatham County (GA) Sheriff’s Department, who generously shared the lessons of control he has learned from dealing with thousands of violent mental patients; Officer Jim Marsh, coordinator of defensive tactics for the Chicago Police Department, who supplied valuable information related to the physical stamina of officers and to the improvement of handcuffing techniques, and Special Agent John C. Desmedt, supervisor of defensive measures for the United States Secret Service, whose theories on tactical positioning, principles of physical control and management of resistant subjects were helpful in properly describing certain control techniques. For additional research help, in some cases spanning several years, I wish to express my profound gratitude to: Harvey Goldstein, director of psychological services for the Prince George’s County (MD) Police Department; Officer Marvin Klepper, remedial training officer, Los Angeles (CA) City Housing Authority Police; Lieutenant Curtis McGee, Detroit (MI) Police Department Training Academy; Security Director Don Waterfill, Jewish Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky; Sergeant W. W. Wilson, training coordinator, Valley Brook (OK) Police Department; Rangemaster Maury Baitx, Anaheim (CA) Police Department; Coordinator/Instructor Charles Brown, Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training; Police Officer Steve May, Modesto (CA) Police Department; Larry Frahm, commnications skills consultant, Lincoln, Nebraska; Sergeant John R. Brooks, Marion County (IN) Sheriff’s Department; Commander Gary Stryker, Deerfield (IL) Police Department; Debi Lebeda, formerly a patrol officer with the Cedar Rapids (IA) Police Department; Officer David D. Blood of the Norfolk (VA) Police Department; Chief Mike Nordin, Sturgeon Bay (WI) Police Department; Daniel Vega, executive director of the Catalyst Counseling Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Patrolman James G. Smith, Milwaukee (WI) Police Department; Patrolman Robert C. Willis, New Berlin (WI) Police Department; Reserve Deputy Jeffery G. Cobb, East Baton Rouge (LA) Parish Sheriff’s Office; Sergeant John Hyland, president of the New York City Auxiliary Police Benevolent Association; Officer John H. Pride, firearms instructor, and former Captain Mike Nielsen (ret.}, of the Los Angeles (CA) Police Department; Officer Michael W. Quinn, chemical agents instructor, Minneapolis (MN) Police Department; Sergeant Robert Givan, Indianapolis (IN) Police Department; Herb Cohen, Power Negotiations Institute, Northbrook, Illinois; Attorney Joseph E. Scuro, Jr., San Antonio, Texas; Chief Martin E. Strones, Training Branch, Transportation Safeguards Division, United States Department of Energy; Trooper David H. Miller, North Carolina State Patrol; Training Officers Larry E. Scott and Gary Berry, Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy; Deputy Emlyn Cassman, Baton Rouge Parish (LA) Sheiff’s Office; Training Sergeant Richard Lee, Shawnee County (KS) Sheriff's Department; Sergeant James Vizza, New York City Police Academy; Reserve Sergeant J. Howard Cooper, Struthers (OH) Police Department; Statistical Assistant Patricia A. Lee, Federal Bureau of Investigation; Edward Nowicki, police training coordinator, Milwaukee (WI) Area Technical College; Trooper Shayne Slovacek, Oklahoma Highway Patrol; Inspector Les C. Smith, United States Marshals Service; Lieutenant Rich Wemmer, Los Angeles (CA) Police Department; Massad Ayoob and Ray

Chapman, instructors for the Advanced Officer Survival Seminar; John S. Farnam, Defense Training, Inc., Niwot, Colorado, and instructors at the Greater St. Louis (MO) Police Academy, for their detailed explanation of the Pressure Point Control system. For special consideration that made possible continued progress on this book at several key points, I thank Colonel Ralph T. Milstead, director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety. I wish also to express my appreciation to Dennis Anderson, cofounder of Calibre Press, Inc. His dynamic creativity and tireless efforts helped in innumerable ways to push this long project across the finish line. My thanks, too, to the employees and professional consultants of Calibre Press, Inc., who contributed in their individual ways to make

this book possible. And finally, I want to thank my wife, Colleen, who was there through the good days and the sleepless nights alike and whose resourceful and inspiring support never wavered. My debt to her is beyond words. Charles Remsberg Northbrook,

Illinois

INTRODUCTION Back before officer survival got the attention it does today, four California Highway Patrolmen were gunned down one night during a traffic stop involving two ex-convicts with bank robbery on their minds. Later the offender who started the shooting reflected on the first victim: “He got careless, so I wasted him.”

There’s a lot less “wasting” now. More officers understand that despite the high risks they encounter on patrol, whether they come home at the end of their shifts can be determined by more than just chance. They know that fatalistically believing “When your number’s up, it’s up” or “If someone really wants to take you, there’s nothing you can do about it” is obsolete thinking. They are no longer content to operate on the old police attributes of nerve, luck and raw courage.

They are committed to winning by design, even against long odds. This commitment is paying off. In 1973, 134 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in the United States. Since then, the toll has dropped significantly, in some years reaching the lowest levels since federal authorities began compiling these figures in 1971. But this welcome improvement is not because today’s offender is any less violent than those in the past. Indeed, the consensus is that there is a greater capacity for violence on the street today than ever before. What’s making the difference is that officers now are more aware of the adversary’s ways and will...and more dedicated to the mental attitudes and tactical maneuvers that can defeat his violent intent.

This Medal of Honor was awarded for a single-handed capture of

two suspects. The first suspect rushed his car and fired. The officer rolled out, took cover and wounded the suspect. A second occupant went for his gun, and was wrestled to the ground.

The first book in this series, Street Survival: Tactics for Armed

Encounters and the two-day Seminar that grew out of it helped foster that dedication. The goal of The Tactical Edge is to expand and advance it. This is not a revision of Street Survival nor a substitute for it. The two books should be regarded as distinct but complementary works. Street Survival offers you the core considerations for surviving and

winning an armed confrontation. The Tactical Edge shows you how to use those fundamentals in tactical strategies of thinking and deployment at a wide variety of high-risk calls. If you regard Street Survival as being about climbing, The Tactical Edge is about mountaineering. One book builds on the other; together they constitute the most comprehensive treatment of what it takes to stay alive in law enforcement ever published. Besides enhancing your personal skills, this volume can provide a wealth of information for updating and improving your academy and inservice training. In some needy quarters, hopefully, it may stimulate action for the first time. For despite the gains of recent years, some administrators still dismiss officer survival as “militaristic bullshit.” One survey of more than 250 departments, in fact, revealed that 47% did not conduct officer survival training. Of those that did, 70% did so only

in their basic academies.! Such departments are missing a documented opportunity to serve not only their own officers but their public, as well. One major East Coast agency, for example, has overhauled its entire firearms program to reflect officer survival principles. It has eliminated old-fashioned bullseye targets and instituted moving and multiple targets...close-combat shooting...dim-light firing...cover and concealment exercises... qualification for off-duty weapons... guidelines for verbal challenges...and practical, stressful, decision-making role-playing in a tactical “fun

house.” The result: * armed confrontations down 45% * officers wounded or killed down 56% * offenders wounded or killed down 51%. Yet felony contacts by that agency (many of which could have resulted in shootings) have increased 28% and felony arrests are up 10%. In short, more policing, fewer injuries and casualties. Rather than breed a kind of reckless vigilantism, as some administrators seem to fear, survival training fosters conservative control measures. Courts are increasingly supporting such efforts by holding administrators legally liable for negligence if an officer or someone else is injured because they have failed to provide contemporary, realistic, jobrelated training. Administrators who continue to ignore their training obligation do so today at their own peril. Yet even the most conscientious department is—and will be— hampered in its training efforts by budget constraints, manpower constraints, time constraints, political constraints,

creativity constraints

and a host of other very real limitations that can easily sabotage a willingness to train. Formal training by many agencies is vastly improving, but: Compared to what is needed or desired, training in most departments will ALWAYS fall short. Which leaves a cold, hard bottom line: THE GAP BETWEEN THE TRAINING YOU GET SPOON-FED AND WHAT YOU NEED TO SURVIVE ON THE STREET IS LEFT UP

TO YOU TO FILL. That gap does not have to be very wide to make you vulnerable. Just wide enough for an offender to fire a bullet through. This book will help you help yourself. Its content examines in detail tactics and techniques for controlling the situations you encounter on patrol that are most likely to expose you to life-threatening assault. ‘Nielsen and Eskridge, “Police Shooting Incidents,” Law and Order, March, 1982.

Some information will help you prevent attacks by would-be assailants. Other will help you successfully overcome attacks that still occur despite your best efforts. Still other will improve your insights into your adversary’s thoughts and actions so you can be better prepared to anticipate and counter them. Tactical options are presented, recognizing that the same approach does not always work best for every officer or in every situation. These options are evaluated where appropriate, so you can better judge which choice is likeliest to protect you effectively, given the circumstances you face. Although most of these options are explained in the context of specific calls— hostage barricades, vehicle stops, domestic disturbances, etc.—keep in mind that the principles that underlie them are usually applicable across the board in safely managing any high-risk situation. In some cases, the options given may contradict the “right” ways you learned in the past. This is a positive development. It shows that police tactics are undergoing an appropriate evolution as more thought is focused on them, more field testing is being conducted under street conditions...and as offenders continue to change and strengthen their tools and methods of operation. Your tactics should never remain static, because the world in which you need to perform is constantly in flux. Indeed, as you experiment with what you find here you undoubtedly will discover ways of your own to improve further on what are believed to be the best protective measures currently available. In most chapters, procedures are referenced, as well as tactics and techniques. Although it is accurately said that the true test of a police department’s effectiveness is the manner in which it deals with high-risk situations, many (if not most) law enforcement agencies lack any kind of policy-and-procedural guide for high-risk calls. Officers are left on their own to develop response plans. Commonly they end up doing whatever comes to mind; often what one officer tries conflicts with what another is attempting. If this is the case in your jursidiction, the structures outlined for getting through dangerous calls can be invaluable aids to strengthen your tactical maneuvers and those of your fellow officers. They can also serve as a guideline for written departmental policies. Firearms, of course, are positioned throughout as an important part of your tactical response. Your gun, after all, is your ultimate defense for your life, and your skill in using it may in some situations be the only edge you'll have against a violent assailant. Yet you should emerge from this book with a fresh appreciation of how much more there is to officer survival than mere firearms proficiency. As you read, remain aware of how: 1. Mental

Conditioning

can prepare

you for a crisis encounter

before it happens and help you cope with stress hazards during and after its occurrence;

2. Tactical Thinking helps you safely and confidently approach not only the high-risk situations you may confront every day but also the ultra-dangerous rarity you may face only once in your career; 3. Verbal Manipulation can enable you to prevent a volatile con-

frontation from escalating and let you nonviolently defuse a situation that is already near its flashpoint;

4. Physical Skills may keep you alive and in many cases injury-free when you cannot resort to deadly force; 5. Attitude is essential in gaining the tactical edge...and keeping it until the day you retire. More than anything else, high-risk calls are “attitude” calls.

A key component of a survival attitude is the willingness to practice what you read about BEFORE you need to use it on the street. Repeated “rehearsal” in a safe setting not only improves your retention

but can instill a sense of having “been there before,” which will underscore your self-confidence and performance when you are confronting real danger. Remember, though, that the old saying, “practice makes perfect,” is not entirely accurate. It’s perfect practice that makes perfect. Otherwise, you are simply creating and imprinting new bad habits. Some material that follows will refresh and reinforce what experience or common sense have already taught you. Other concepts and methods will be new to you. Incorporating them into your patrol behavior may require that you break old habits and carefully develop new ones. You can minimize your risk of becoming discouraged and bolster your will to persevere if you remember this Stairway to Survival.

MASTERY STRIVING INERTIA It is normal when confronting new challenges to experience mild panic. You may question your ability to solve the tactical problems you face, and you may feel frustrated, confused, uncertain, depressed. This may be followed by inertia, where you feel hopeless and lack initiative, perhaps feel sorry for yourself. Here you may be tempted to decide, “Aw, shit, I’ll just take my chances.” But if you consciously recommit yourself to surviving, you will then find yourself striving with serious effort and energy to improve. As you gain proficiency with new tactics, you'll build confidence by coping with more and more problems. Finally, you will achieve mastery, where your survival practices have become a way of life... where you have an unshakable belief in yourself and your ability to win...where YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF YOUR FATE. As you revise and expand your survival skills in the years ahead, you may have to scale these steps many times. If there comes a time when you doubt whether mastery is worth all it takes, just reread the next 14 paragraphs. They highlight major social trends that impact your job. And they are only part of what could be mentioned. * The U.S. prison population is now at a record high, up more than 40% since 1980. After incarceration averaging four years or less even for serious violent crimes, most convicts will be back on the street, better schooled legally, better conditioned physically and better equipped tactically.

Expectations when you're inside: Relaxation... Exercise... Escape. 6

Corrections personnel look over a homemade, one-man helicopter found inside a maximum security prison.

The chest of an inmate who was murdered during a recent major prison riot. While still alive and held down, his body was mutilated with gang graffiti.

A disturbing phenomenon. Early release for inmates to ease an overcrowded prison.

¢ Low bail or no bail is being set by judges in many jurisdictions to keep down the populations of overcrowded jails. Offenders in record numbers are jumping bail, remaining at large beyond their trial dates. * More than half the population growth in this country in the next 20 years will come from ethnic minority groups, which have the highest ratio of law enforcement contact and are disproportionately associated with criminal violence. * Arsenals of deadly weapons are being stockpiled by private armies associated with the so-called “survivalist” movement. These fastgrowing paramilitary groups are training thousands of members with machine guns, antitank cannons, rocket launchers and even antiaircraft artillery. Some advocate that member households keep on hand from 12 to over 100 guns per person.

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A member of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan takes part in a “special forces” maneuver.

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Armed with a special gun which shoots paint pellets, a survivalist captures the “enemy flag” during a game called Strategy Plus.

Outlaw motorcycle gangs pose an increasing threat to you. There are over 900 gangs in the United States alone with estimates of over 10,000 members. Their past criminal activity has included the execution of police officers.

A member of the “peacekeeping force” for a major West Coast religious cult whose members are heavily armed.

¢ More than 10 million people in this country are trained to some degree in the martial arts, giving them a fighting skill that most police officers lack. * Among the U. S. population generally, there are now nearly four times as many machine guns and assault rifles in the hands of private citizens as in the hands of police officers. ¢ Among inner-city teen-agers, the current status symbols are fully automatic weapons, rifles and sawed-off shotguns. An epidemic of blackmarket guns has made them as easy as drugs for kids as young as 10 to obtain. * Social scientists and street cops alike point to “a shifting nature of crime,” with robbery, especially, becoming increasingly vicious. “We are dealing with individuals who are using more guns than ever before, and the individuals who are using them have less regard for human life than they did in the past,” says one chief of detectives. Middle- and upper-class offenders are showing up more frequently. ¢ New evidence is confirming that violence on television has a significant effect in producing violence in real life, especially among young people. Television viewing, meanwhile, has reached a new level in U. S. households—more than seven hours a day. * Pre-schoolers left in day-care centers are 15 times more aggressive than other youngsters, according to one study. Their behavior is not just more assertive but involves physical violence, verbal abuse and resistance to authority. The public schools, meantime, report growing numbers of “a new kind of child,” with “different values” and profound problems that our schools are ill-equipped to handle. During a recent 30year span, serious crime by youngsters under 15 years of age multiplied by 110 times.

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Teenager uses detective’s car for a trampoline while being cheered by a companion. Retaliation for a drug bust.

Outside a bar two youths brutally assault and rob this man for $31. 9

* Some sociologists argue that our population will get less violent as it grows older. Yet serious offenses—including criminal violence—are increasing at a more furious rate among the elderly than among the population generally. Almost 30% of the crime committed by aged offenders is violent, and the problem is expected to worsen as the number of people over 65 doubles by the end of the century. *In 1948 there were three times as many police officers as violent crimes. Now there are twice as many violent crimes as there are police. * Experts consider it “a definite possibility” that today’s typical officer will experience at least one armed encounter during his career. “People are no longer hesitant to respond violently to an armed policeman,” says the executive director of a major crime commission. “It used to be that whatever you do, you don’t kill a cop. People don’t have that block any more.”

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Some officers construct for themselves what psychologists call a “personal fable.” This is a fantasy of being special and not subject to the natural laws which pertain to others. The “story” these officers tell themselves about themselves is that nothing bad is ever going to happen to them. Or because they just never happen to run into the wrong situation at the wrong time, they believe the poor tactics they use are really satisfactory. This gives rise to the “veteran hairbag,” the sarcastic locker room commando who criticizes, maligns and questions survivaloriented officers as if they were court jesters. A bit of graffito scrawled in the squad room of one police station tells the truth: “This ain’t the movies and you On the street mentalities behind Either you or they

10

ain’t John Wayne.” you will meet the human beings, the weapons, the

the dismal facts above. They are waiting for you. will have the edge.

THE MENTAL of} —

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MENTAL CONDITIONING An off-duty deputy sheriff driving along a California freeway was picked at random by members of an outlaw motorcycle gang for torment and intimidation. Their traffic harassment escalated quickly to a roadside confrontation. Then, amidst their verbal abuse, the bikers suddenly flashed guns, and shooting erupted. Facing six armed assailants, the deputy shot two, then ran to a nearby auto repair shop and called police. As the others closed in, blasting away at his position, he stayed on the line, giving a running account of the action and reporting his name, badge number, exact location, even the name and phone number of his watch commander. Sporadically, he interrupted himself to shout out warnings and to fire back at his attackers. Two more went down, one so close that the dispatcher could hear his body hit the ground. Yet throughout the battle, the deputy’s voice stayed calm, authoritative and articulate, no more emotional than if he were running a license check. Each of his four shots scored a solid hit, and he avoided any personal injury. He was just 17 days out of his academy.... In Florida, an officer was caught by surprise while investigating a possible break-in at a convenience mart and was shot at belt level with a .22 round that “felt like being hit with a baseball bat.” Even as he was falling backward, he drew his gun and fired back, ending the assault before more serious injury occurred and sending the attacker fleeing. Then, despite concern about his wound, he helped the dispatcher direct the response. He requested only one unit, to minimize confusion at the scene, and methodically outlined the safest approach route for that

officer, in light of the gunman’s line of flight. He commented on the radio that there was no need for anyone else to get injured and urged responding officers to drive safely.... Another Southern officer, responding to a rape-in-progress in a Car,

took six hits from the armed offender before incapacitating him with a shotgun. One of the first bullets smashed into the officer’s mouth and destroyed a large part of his tongue. When he tried to radio for help, the - dispatcher could not decipher his mumbles, so the officer showed the near-hysterical rape victim how to use his radio. Then, bleeding profusely, he comforted her and tended his wounds until help came. When responding officers arrived, they found him standing alert and ready to help in any way he could. By this time, more than half his uniform was drenched in his own blood.

—2

A bullet fired by one of two bank robbers ricocheted off this deputy’s patrol car and struck him between the eyes. After being shot, he pursued the men 3 miles and aided in their capture. Only then did he allow himself to be taken to a hospital.

An excellent example of mental conditioning, this chief was shot in the cheek, swallowed the bullet and then proceeded to incapacitate the offender.

If Academy Awards were given for performances under stress, officers like these would walk away with Oscars. And yet other officers, with comparable experience and professional training and in circumstances of no greater pressure, react in ways that are barely functional. For instance, an Oklahoma detective team hunting two prison escapees on a murder spree spotted the fugitives standing beside their

stolen truck in a residential driveway a few miles from where they had just gunned down two state troopers. The detectives were nearly a block away, but the driver sped their unit directly to the mouth of the driveway and stopped, only feet from the killers. His maneuver placed his partner directly in the assailants’ line of fire. One of them promptly blew off the top of the partner’s head... .In Illinois, officers trying to control a hostagetaker at a roadblock completely surrounded his vehicle, oblivious to their blatant cross-fire exposure. Although the suspect had a revolver in hand, one officer walked up within inches of him, with no cover and with his own semi-automatic holstered, to negotiate. When talking failed and shooting broke out, officers Jeft cover positions to rush closer. In a barrage of bullets, the offender was killed—with his hands extended out his open door, trying to surrender...During the nighttime pursuit of an armed robber who was fleeing from a shootout with police, an officer in the Southwest within minutes: fired two shotgun blasts from his speeding patrol car at the suspect’s vehicle without any idea where the rounds hit, ran toward the suspect on foot after the gunman stopped his car and fired two shots at the officer, took off in foot pursuit without advising his location and with no radio or flashlight, kept going despite losing sight of the suspect, and then ran past his hiding places and through his line of 14

fire three times without seeing him. Later the officer had such poor recall of the incident that he could not remember that he and his partner had totaled their vehicle at the end of the car chase.... What accounts for these radical contrasts in response? How can some officers exhibit calm and control against incredible challenges, yet others be so overwhelmed with fear, anger, excitement or panic that they make themselves—or fellow officers—easy candidates for stretchers or body bags?

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An interesting response to a subject’s verbal threats. The officer (top photo) elected to place his gunbelt and baton on the sidewalk, out of camera view, to deal with the situation! After the subject left, the officer walked away toting his gear. He was suspended from duty for having disarmed himself before dealing with the threat.

The answer is not necessarily that those who fail to perform well are just ignorant or contemptuous of survival principles. Some, through reading and role-playing, are actively striving for survival mastery, but nn

still fall drastically short when the chips are down. The explanation lies with the orphan child of officer survival training: mental preparedness. The first three officers cited, either through deliberate study or by trial and error, have hit upon the psychological secrets of maintaining composure even under enormous stress. Their mental control allowed them to select and apply appropriate tactical options without emotional disruption. Everyone has that capability. Yet thousands of officers, like those others described above, are failing to tap it. From Street Survival: Tactics for Armed Encounters, you'll recall that mental/physical preparation, along with tactics and shooting skill, comprise the essential elements of the “survival triangle,” a figurative shield from harm. From what is now known about officer survival, the mental/physical component should occupy the triangle’s foundation, connoting key importance. Yet survival training tends to focus almost exclusively on improving tactics and firearms proficiency, with heavy emphasis on equipment considerations. Lately, physical fitness is beginning to draw some attention, too. But the concept of preparing mentally for survival—a core concept—remains, for the most part, either sadly slighted or misunderstood. Trainers and street cops alike either don’t really know how to prepare mentally, or they don’t fully appreciate the remarkable degree to which you can actually program your mind and body to carry you successfully through a violent confrontation. The consequence of this neglect is a shallow approach to survival...and needless tragedy.

KSI

OOO

MENTAL CONDITIONING

Your mind is the most dangerous weapon you carry on patrol. The extent to which it is prepared for a high-risk, high-stress encounter determines for whom it is dangerous. Properly prepared, it can be a paralyzing threat to your adversary. UNprepared, it can prove devastating to you or to your fellow officers because of its capacity, under stress, to mercilessly sabotage your performance. If you approach high-risk situations without the proper mental preparation, the strongest force in deciding your destiny is going to be luck. In fact, after studying dozens of shootings, one trainer has assigned this relative weighting to the factors that tend to determine whether UNprepared officers survive:

Mental Skill. aaeeeeerei 5% Physical Skillijgeee sos 5% Shooting Skill Ragaeme san . 15% LUCK «... 3: a 75% 16

With such a small reservoir of mental skills to draw upon, these officers’ responses to a crisis situation tend to be strong in uncontrolled emotions, weak in disciplined tactics. Stress overwhelms their thought processes, often with results few would ever have predicted. For example, two officers stopped a young suspect who was driving a stolen vehicle. As one officer approached the vehicle, the suspect suddenly produced a snubnose .38 and without speaking a word cranked off five fast rounds, hitting the officer in the face. The victim’s partner reacted by drawing her service revolver and, after firing once and missing, reportedly threw it toward the offender. She then turned and ran. He shot her in the lower back. Luck saved her life, but her partner’s luck was not so good; he died.

(Top) The hat of an officer who was shot twice as he attempted to arrest three men. This badge, shot off the hat, saved the officer’s life. (left) This officer narrowly escaped death when an offender’s bullet penetrated his m® notebook and bounced off a _ metal pen in his jacket pocket.

17

Officers are sometimes asked by civilian friends: “Who are you most scared of out on the street?” The officer who’s unprepared mentally should answer, without hesitation: “Me.” Instead of going on patrol feeling confident because he is competent, this type of officer operates either with a lurking fear of what might happen or with an immobilizing insecurity about his ability or with a cocky denial that anything might arise that he couldn’t control. When such officers—or partners who are depending on them—are killed, “failure to be effective in the face of a threat” should be listed as a contributing cause of death. In truth, most threats can be successfully defeated or outmaneuvered. Luck—good or bad—can probably never be eliminated entirely as an element in staying alive. But its ranking on your survival scale can be dramatically reordered. What truly prepared officers can depend on for winning violent clashes is this: NEN

TAL SKILL: yi. ean ees 75%

Shooting Skills ace 15% Physical SRiLlteesvact aan 5% Luck

eica

rea

ee

5%

On their chart, not chance but the factors that they can control predominate. And mental preparedness, because of its crucial role in conquering stress and directing tactics, heads the list. One way mental preparation has been given short shrift, even by conscientious officers, is by being regarded too superficially. Commonly it’s equated only with staying aware of possible dangers and “psyching up” a “will to win” against any assailant who takes you on. These ingredients—alertness and commitment—are vital. But to prepare yourself mentally to the fullest extent possible you need to delve much deeper than that. In this chapter, you can learn proven techniques for developing a thoroughly prepared survival mind. With them, you can condition yourself mentally so that your mind will be predisposed to helping you survive a crisis on the street. This mental training will automatically and reliably enable you to: l. minimize the perilous stress overload inherent in any life-ordeath situation; 2. select your best tactical options for controlling threats and for counter-assaulting; 3. better perform any physical moves demanded by these tactics, and 4. maximize your chances of surviving if you are injured.

Honing your mind to this level requires practice long before the moment of need. You cannot just read about the regimen involved now and expect it to save you six months or six years from now when you’re staring down the barrel of an offender’s gun. That’s “magical thinking,” a co-conspirator of luck in destroying police lives. Once you've intellectually absorbed the techniques that follow, you need to begin working on a conditioning program that features them. By regularly repeating easyto-learn, easy-to-do mental exercises, you will quickly improve your mental capability, much as physical exercises improve your muscle capability. Just “trying harder” to stay calm and perform well on hazardous calls is not enough. That approach may, in fact, prove counter productive, by actually increasing your anxiety and thus further impeding your

performance. What works better is a more sophisticated system for mental self-conditioning that is increasingly being used by Olympic and professional athletes to sharpen their performances in stressful competition. The United States military also has begun training command personnel in these methods to enhance their tactical decision-making during combat. Here, the system that helps these people win against their adversaries has been adapted specifically to your needs as a law enforcement officer. This system works because it takes into account and positively exploits the way in which the human body reacts to stress and threat.

THE MORE YOU MASTER THE MENTAL EXERCISES PRESCRIBED, THE BETTER YOU WILL BE ABLE TO USE THE TACTICS FOR CONTROLLING HIGH-RISK ENCOUNTERS DESCRIBED IN THE REMAINDER OF THIS BOOK.

Your mental preparation begins with understanding a fundamental phenomenon of physiology.... 1?

The

Mind/Body

Partnership

Many people think of the mind and the body as separate entities, but in reality they operate much like a police partnership. When you and another officer respond to a call, what each of you does or experiences necessarily affects the other, in blatant or subtle ways. A similar interplay carries messages and reactions back and forth between your mind and your body and your body and your mind, so that the influence of each registers unavoidably on the other. There are physiological manifestations of what is on your mind and psychological manifestations of what happens to you physically.

This unified relationship is what makes it possible for you to control stress and to improve your decision-making and physical performance through mental conditioning. You can document the two-way connection with two quick experiments. Trying them both now will help you better understand and have confidence in the exercises suggested for managing stress and preparing mentally for patrol. First, to demonstrate how your body—and your physical moves— can affect you mentally, frown as you would if you wished to display anger or displeasure. Don’t consciously try to feel that way; just contract your facial muscles as if you did. If you hold that expression, you will find your mind flooding with negative thoughts and emotions within a few seconds. Similarly, adopt the posture of depresston—hanging your head, slumping your shoulders, looking “down in the mouth,” etc. Soon you'll have a mental state to match. Your body is stimulating your mind to react via physical cues. Researchers in fact have documented a body-mindbody “feedback loop.” Subjects who mimic facial expressions of anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise and happiness not only quickly begin to feel those emotions but also soon experience measurable changes in heart rate, hand temperature, skin resistance and muscle tension. Their minds, reacting to physical in-put, relay back “mood messages” to their bodies, causing more profound physiological change. Indeed, some researchers now contend that subjects can control the physical changes measured by polygraphs just by controlling their facial expressions.

A good example of mind and body working together to perform a unique feat. This body builder is lifting two trucks with a combined weight of eight tons. His mind told his body he could succeed at his goal, and he did.

To confirm that your mental processes can directly generate physical reactions beyond your conscious control, make a pendulum by tying about 10 inches of string or thread to a small, light object, like a paper clip, finger ring or steel washer. With your elbow resting on a stable surface and bent at about 45° hold the string gently between your thumb and forefinger, letting the weight dangle. Without moving your arm or fingers, think to yourself: “Yes...yes...yes...,” over and over again. Concentrate on that thought. With most people, the pendulum soon will begin a definite movement, either in a circle or along an axis. If you change your thought to “No...no...no...,” the pendulum’s motion will change, too. Do not try to anticipate or direct the movement; the weight will consistently activate on its own. This may seem like a séance trick, but it actually results from tiny muscle contractions you cannot see or feel. Your mind is transmitting subconscious communications, and your body is responding. The principles involved can be put to serious practical purpose on your behalf on the street. The easiest and most immediate application is in coping with stress.

Stress

Response

Stress is the strain placed on your internal systems by anything that disturbs or makes a demand of you. Being under some degree of stress is a 21

natural part of being alive and reacting to stimuli from your environment. Your body can accommodate some stress without undue wear and tear. But your inner reactions to a major disturbance—like the acute crisis of a shooting, a fight, a high-speed chase or some other violenceladen event—quickly can tax or surpass your ability to adapt, unless your mental conditioning has equipped you with good stress-control skills. If an elevated level of stress sustains for a long period of time and becomes chronic, the effects on your health and lifestyle can be profound. In a high-intensity episode, your mind/body circuitry is more alive with action than a pinball board. As your brain interprets incoming stimuli as threatening, it broadcasts urgent messages of arousal along your nerve network. Adrenalin (sometimes called epinephrine), cortisol, aldosterone and other hormones pour into your bloodstream, mixing a “chemical cocktail” of alarm that reinforces and prolongs the stress reaction. Certain blood vessels tighten down and others expand as your circulatory system diverts blood away from your skin surface, your extremities and your digestive organs and channels it to the large muscle groups most closely related to strength and speed. Your heart and lungs work harder and faster to rush fresh nutrients to these tissues and clear away waste. Your spleen discharges more red blood cells into your bloodstream to increase your oxygen supply. Your liver releases stored sugar to hype your energy. Your blood pressure leaps. Your muscles tense, especially in your lower back, neck and shoulders, staying near the threshold of action in anticipation of movement. Your sweat glands kick in as your body tries to cool itself. And so on. Uncomfortable feelings spawned by these physical changes are detected by your brain as psychologically alarming. These internal signals increase your mental distress which, in turn, prompts even more physical reaction. Before long, the stress “feedback loop” is racing in high gear. Eons ago, when human biology first emerged, cavemen experienced identical psycho-physiological reactions when they confronted dangerous wild animals. The arousal syndrome quickly prepared them either to fight the threat or take flight from it. In that context, stress responses were crucial to survival; the diversion of blood to large muscle groups, for instance, prepared the arms for swinging and the legs for running, both potentially life-saving movements. Today, the equipment you carry is more sophisticated than the clubs of your Neanderthal ancestors and the responses that are appropriate or even possible for you to make to threats are often much more complex than their brute reactions. Your internal response to stress has endured as your legacy from prehistoric times. But because your response options now must usually be so different from mere fight or flight, acute stress in your environment may endanger—or terminate—your survival rather than help it. Extra blood nourishment for your large muscles means less for your small muscles involved in, say, finger dexterity and eye-hand coordination. Thus fine motor movements that ordinarily are easy may become impossible. Firing your sidearm accurately and smoothly or reloading quickly without fumbling will be much harder than if you were calm. With your digestive processes disrupted, you may experience nausea that is distracting or disabling. Your tightened muscles may affect your voice, making effective verbal challenges difficult...or your eyes, causing excessive watering and blurring your vision... or your breathing, making ae

you choke or gasp and robbing you of stamina...or your flexibility, leaving you unable to perform important physical moves with the right fluidity and limberness. Under high-stress bombardment, your brain is so busy devouring input and spewing out responses that other mental functions are necessarily sacrificed. The part of your brain responsible for large muscle control (essential for fighting or fleeing) gets priority at the expense of the part of your brain responsible for abstract thought. Your ability to concentrate is disrupted; the risk increases that you will select improper stimuli to focus your attention on. Your judgment suffers; your decisions are less likely to be appropriate to the demands of the situation, and indeed may be wildly inappropriate. Your analytical thinking is hampered; it’s much tougher to reason clearly and logically about strategy and tactics, and harder to retrieve options from your memory. Your creative capacity shrinks; your hope of improvising good maneuvers on the spot virtually evaporates. In short, anxiety overcomes function. During

what

may

prove

to be critical moments,

you may

be over-

whelmed by emotion, and in confusion and fear you may set up in your response the very errors that you desperately want and need to avoid.

Officers who’ve

survived

shootings

and police psychologists

who’ve later analyzed their behavior at the peak of those incidents point out several phenomena that commonly result from sudden super stress on the mind and body. If you are like many other officers, at the moment your life is in greatest jeopardy you may have to contend not only with the adversary who's trying to kill you, but with your own: Startle Response: This refers to the animal instinct to jump or ‘Solomon and Horn, Post-Shooting Traumatic Reactions, 1984.

make other involuntary movement in reflex to a sudden fright, such as the sight or sound of a firearm. The more you are caught by surprise, the more startle reaction you'll have and the greater will be your lag time in responding to counter the threat. Even when gunfire is anticipated, such as in an extended barricaded suspect incident, the first shot by either side usually startles officers at the scene. One patrolman, assigned to the inner perimeter at a barricade site in the Southwest, was standing in a concealed position with his shotgun on his hip when the suspect fired the initial round. The officer jumped at the noise and his finger pulled the trigger, sending a round blasting into the air. This not only jeopardized fellow officers, but gave away his position, allowing the assailant to aim his next shots directly at the officer’s location. Another officer, in Nevada, was startled when his partner fired at an armed offender. He spun to look in the direction of the sound. A bullet from the adversary’s gun that otherwise would have whizzed past his head caught him in his profiled face. Often an initial shot fired by a startled officer creates the “domino effect;” other officers reflexively begin to shoot, even though they may have no justifiable target. The end result is complete loss of fire control. Thought Distraction: At the moment you need to focus your concentration on the threat, uninvited thoughts may jam your mind and divert your attention. Often these “racing” intrusions are doubtful questions or negative conclusions that you may “hear” phrased in your own voice: “Hey, can I really shoot this guy?” “If I shoot, I’ll be sued!” “What’s my sergeant gonna say?” “Is my line of fire clear?” “If 1 take him out, I’ll be writing reports for two weeks,” etc. Sometimes a fantasy of the confrontation is played out to the very end; one officer even “read” newspaper headlines of the outcome in his head as his assailant’s bullets were flying around him. One study of survivors suggests that nearly 60% of the officers involved in shootings experience distracting thoughts at the height of their encounters. Their distraction is often compounded by their wondering, with aggravation, “Why on earth am I thinking about this at a time like now?” Physical Distress: Your stress may express itself in ways that are even more upsetting or distracting. On the scene immediately before, during or after a high-risk episode, some officers vomit, some faint, a few

Patrolman sits in his car tollowing a shootout. Paramedics in the background treat the offender who tried to kill the efficer, 24

urinate or defecate beyond their control, and many suffer discomforts such as dry mouths, sweaty palms, aching muscles or throbbing chests. One officer who had just fatally wounded an assailant insisted to other officers that he could hear another offender in the vicinity. What he really heard were his own knees knocking. Again, surprise tends to be a factor in this phenomenon. Where assaults are unexpected, an estimated 60 to 75% ot officers will have one or more noticeable physiological manifestations of stress.

rerte..! (ANP

4

After shots were

up—unaware

fired into this bank robber’s car, officers rushed of crossfire problems.

Sensory Distortion: The odds are extremely high that during your stress crisis you will perceive the action unrealistically, in terms of what you see or hear or the amount of time the event appears to take. Often a variety of perceptual distortions occur. About half the officers in shootings suffer visual tricks. Your eyes may tunnel in on just a fragment of the

bigger picture, blocking out what's above, below or to the sides of it like a television camera’s zoom

lens. In one Western state, an officer and an

offender were wrestling when the officer’s partner drew his gun. From then until he finished firing three shots, the partner admitted later, he saw nothing but the spot on the offender’s back where he was aiming. Visually, the other officer simply did not register with him—so he never considered the possibility that his bullets might bore right through the suspect and strike that officer, who was clinched in the struggle. Fortunately, the suspect’s backbone stopped or sufficiently slowed all the rounds. For some officers, size is distorted (“The asshole’s derringer looked like a cannon!”’); some experience exceptional acuity (“I could see the bullets in his chamber from 20 yards”); some see mental flash pictures of their families just before they shoot; a few hallucinate that an

offender has already fired at them before the attack actually begins, or that they have fired back when they really haven’t. Where sounds are concerned, nearly 65% of officers under peak stress experience distortions. Auditory blocking—hearing important sounds only faintly or not at all (“I did not hear any of the five shots fired by myself and my partner”)—is most common.

“as a general rule in an as many rounds as you intensified rather than (“The sniper’s gun went

In fact, one prominent trainer claims that

actual gunfight, you will fire three to five times think you have.” In a minority of cases, noise is diminished, and some officers hear a mixture ‘BOOM,’ mine went ‘pop’”}. The sensation most meWN

frequently distorted is time. More than 80% of officers involved in shootings or other high-stress incidents perceive them occurring either much faster or much slower than they actually do. By far the more common distortion is a sense of slowness. The action may seem to unfold before you in slow motion, like one fluid, continuous movement, and you may feel impatient or alarmed because your responses appear unalterably slow, too. Awareness Lapse: On rare occasions, you may mentally block out part of the stressful episode, not just after it’s over but while the event is actually taking place. In a Western state, an outlaw biker tried to run over an officer with his motorcycle. As the officer leaped clear, he thought: “Someone ought to shoot this guy!”” Seconds later, the biker toppled to the ground. The officer thought: “Great! Somebody shot him!” Then he looked down at his hand...and saw his smoking service revolver. He had no conscious awareness of having drawn and fired it. In California, two officers approached a mentally disturbed subject who was chopping down a telephone pole with an axe. Challenged, he knocked one officer to the ground and raised the axe over his head to swing it down on him. The partner saw this...and then the next thing he was conscious of was someone slapping him on the shoulder, saying, “Good shot!” In the interim, blanked out, he had drawn his gun, shot the axe-wielder and saved his fellow officer. These stress phenomena are especially likely to occur the FIRST TIME you are involved in a shooting or some other critical incident. Some officers report that they diminish somewhat on repeat exposure. But if the first incident leaves deep emotional scars on you or leaves you plagued with unresolved fear, they may actually intensify the next time around.

“

Under the stress of seeing a dead officer lying on the sidewalk (left), the uniformed officer’s response was to keep his sidearm holstered. The shootout involved two men who were being served an eviction notice. The plainclothes officer stayed low with his sidearm ready.

26

These phenomena and other aspects of the stress response can prove fatal if you are unprepared for their effects, because they can

interfere with your ability to function at optimum capacity or at any capacity at all. Officers who respond inadequately in high-risk encounters are believed by psychologists in many cases to “freak out,” freeze up or become dangerously distracted by these occurrences. They do not expect them and do not realize that for many officers they are normal reactions to abnormal situations at moments of peak stress. If you don’t hear your rounds going off and don’t understand sensory distortion, you may think your gun isn’t working and stop trying to shoot...or you may continue to “fire” an empty weapon. You may fail to hear warnings shouted out by fellow officers or fail to see signs of danger that they pick up on. If your startle response to hearing gunfire is to look around wondering “What was that?” instead of diving for cover instantly, you may leave yourself vulnerable to attack precious seconds longer than necessary. If you experience the slow-motion effect but don’t know that this can happen and do not understand that you are not really slowed down, you may frantically wonder, “My God, why can’t I move faster!” and become so unnerved that you fail to function. (On the other hand, you may be able to use some of these stress phenomena to your advantage if you expect them and thus are not alarmed by them. Two officers in Colorado were pursuing an armed robber when the suspect suddenly stopped his car, bailed out and started shooting. As the passenger officer started to roll out with a rifle, “Everything went slow motion.” He perceived this distortion as an aid, telling himself, “Wow, I have all the time I need to steady myself, take aim and take this guy out.” And that’s exactly what he did. If you sense the action slowing down in a crisis, tell yourself, “This is one time I can deal with more things than ever before in my life.” Don’t consider it a

limitation and stop. Keep going!): Besides affecting your survival on the job, the impact of stress can have serious ramifications regarding your courtroom survival. In postshooting reports, you’re expected to recall an armed encounter in detail. But sensory distortions or awareness lapses may cause you to report different “facts” than what forensic evidence or the statements of witnesses substantiate. Discrepancies may occur about the number of shots fired...how you handled your firearm...the distances between you and your assailants...the sequencing and timing of events...the presence of other persons at the scene...the nature of the threat, and so on. If other officers have lived through the same high-intensity event with you, you may each remember a different version of what happened. Then in the legal arena, you can end up looking unreliable or, worse, like you are trying to color or cover up the truth. The more stress you are already under as you go into a high-risk situation, the more a surge of stress associated with a sudden crisis is likely to overwhelm you. And a chronically high level of stress is pandemic in law enforcement, compared to many other segments of the population. Your day-by-day—sometimes minute-by-minute—contact with criminals, complainants and citizens alike who are crying, cursing, bleeding, puking, yelling, spitting, biting, fighting, lying, dying, dead, drunk, doped, dirty, scared, scarred, angry, vengeful, irrational, evasive, outlandish, grieving, manipulative, taunting, demanding, defiant, cruel, neurotic, hopeless and just plain crazy subjects your system to repeated onslaughts of disturbance. Laboratory observations indicate that just 27

talking to strangers, arguing or being criticized—guaranteed staples of your day—can raise blood pressure as high as 40 to 50% above resting levels. Unless you know how to rid your mind and body of stress, each call leaves a residue that continues to smoulder after the original stimulus is gone and that builds cumulatively through your shift, although you may not be consciously aware of it. Even quiet periods are not necessarily restorative; boredom often can be almost as stressful as excitement. And back at the station, you may be forced to deal with supervisors and administrators whose personalities and/or policies compound the tension you feel from the street. Off the job, you may face marital problems, offspring problems, financial problems, second-job problems, house problems, car problems, medical problems, digestive problems, sex problems, sleep problems and other unpleasant stimuli that hammer you with pressure of their own. Your mind and body cannot distinguish between these symbolic emotional “threats” to you and actual physical threats. Your brain relays the same alarm alert and your body gears up the same hormonal and cardiovascular fight-or-flight responses internally. The extent to which this occurs depends only upon the degree of anxiety you feel from these pressures. Usually you do not fight or flee in these situations. Indeed, you may have to consciously suppress those impulses in order to behave professionally and legally. Therefore, the extra energy generated by the biochemical arousal is not exhausted. Consequently, the overmobilization of your body is, on at least some level, sustained and perpetuated. The stress by-products continue to circulate through your system until they can eventually be reabsorbed or otherwise used up.

Even in the midst of offering support to a wounded officer, the tactical officer still maintains a controlled reaction to a continuing hazard. Notice the barrel does not extend over the top of the wall. 28

You may become so accustomed to chronic stress that you are no longer conscious of it. Even so, it tends in time to fatigue your organs and your immunological response system. Eventually, the wear and tear of its insidious strain may provoke chronic tiredness, heart trouble, ulcers, cancer, migraine headaches, arthritis or other stress-related disorders. Some of these, in fact, end up killing far more officers every year than do hostile assaults. Meanwhile, this inveterate stress makes you more prone to injury on the job. You are more likely to get hurt accidentally when you are tired and tense, because of your poorer coordination, your diminished mental alertness and your lessened commitment to caution. Moreover, your stress burden sets you up to become a victim in a crisis: it consumes reserves that might otherwise be available to help you absorb acute stress without overt, adverse reactions. In other words, if you’re already close to being “stressed out” when you’re thrust into a life-threatening confrontation, the urgent acute stress load, layered on top of the psychological stress you’re already under, can hopelessly compound your mental and physical performance problems. Among other things, it can erode your reaction time to the point that you can’t respond quickly enough to defend yourself even if you try to. Because stress responses occur automatically, many people assume that little can be done to prevent or regulate them. True, you cannot always eliminate them entirely, but with the proper techniques you can exert far more control over your reactions than you may imagine. You do not have to be a victim of your own stress response. As part of your mental conditioning, you can learn to: 1. relax your mind and body so that stress is minimized as you approach a potentially high-risk situation; 2. control your reactions in a crisis so that the occurrence and effects of stress threats to your survival are forestalled or vastly diminished; 3. recover your equilibrium faster after a high-intensity event, and 4. reduce any chronic stress before it reaches a dangerous level. One of many experiments proving this is possible involved eight world-class pistol shooters.’ Each was injected with a dose of adrenalin

that would have completely overloaded the average person. Yet when these shooters then engaged targets, only two shot significantly less accurately than normal. The others all had developed strategies that were so efficient in controlling stress that they could counter even this mammoth upheaval of their nervous systems. Your key to achieving this kind of control is breaking into the stress feedback loop. Just as the interplay between your mind and your body can aggravate stress, so can it also be used to combat stress if the proper signals are injected into the cycle. If either your mind or your body can be made to relax, it will message its partner that the alarm alert is no longer necessary, and a quieting effect will begin to spread by chain reaction throughout your whole system. Jf your body relaxes, your mind must follow, and vice versa, because of the effect the signals have on the other.

A multitude of proven stress management techniques are available. These include self-hypnosis, meditation, biofeedback, aerobic exercise, progressive muscle release and a variety of other methods designed to induce the relaxation response. *Yagoda, “Relaxation,” Esquire, May, 1984.

But the simplest and the most practical for law enforcement involves an easy task you already perform 20,000 times a day without conscious thought: breathing.

Relaxation

Response

The type of breathing associated with stress is fast and shallow. So to break the stress cycle you want to breathe in just the opposite way, slow and deep. Most officers have to Jearn this breathing pattern because even during non-stressful parts of their day they tend to breathe poorly. Once you’ve mastered how to breathe to relax, you can use it as an antidote to both acute and chronic stress on the job and also as an essential first step in your mental conditioning for survival. One option is to “belly breathe,” a method used with concentration to completely fill and flush out your lungs so that your body expels carbon dioxide waste and replenishes itself with fresh oxygen at a spaced, rhythmic rate. The effect is to reverse the alarm response, restore your psychological sense of self-control and return your body to a naturally balanced state. Especially at first, practice this technique in a private, quiet, softly lighted place where you can stretch out in a reclining chair, on a bed or on the floor. Take the phone off the hook and ask your family not to disturb

you. Close your eyes and place your hands on your abdomen, just above your pubic area. To a slow count of 4, inhale steadily and deeply. Let the air first fill and expand your belly, moving your hands. Then let it fill the lowest portions of your lungs...the middle portions...and finally your chest, so that your shoulders move up slightly. Feel and visualize this filling, from your beltline to your collarbone. Now hold your breath through another slow count of 4. During this period, work gently to empty your mind of troubling thoughts. You might picture it as a scribbled blackboard being wiped clean or as a rough pond over which the wind is gradually dying, leaving it placid and smooth. For the next slow count of 4, exhale. Let the air escape through your mouth, unhurriedly. Push out as much as you can, all the way down into your belly. As the air is expelled, imagine tension flowing out of your body with it. The most peaceful point in breathing is during the pause between exhalation and inhalation. Through another slow count of 4, become conscious of the stillness of that moment and let its quiet further pacify your mind. Then slowly begin inhaling again. Repeat this four-stage cycle for at least 15 minutes. The slow,

rhythmic drum beat of your breathing will begin to feel natural. Air will seem to come in and out of its own accord. Soon your heart beat will slow, your blood pressure will drop, your muscles will stretch and loosen. An alternative breathing style is to exhale twice as long as you inhale. Inhale to a count of 3, exhale to a count of 6. With either method, you can deepen your positive altered state by adding some “directed mental activity” as you breathe. Through a process called “autogenics,” you can willfully raise the temperature of your hands and feet by imagining that they are getting warm and heavy. 30

Fix on each one and calmly tell yourself this change is taking place. Perhaps you can visualize each hand and foot immersed in a bucket of hot water or exposed to heat radiating from a fireplace. The power of your mind will actually stimulate improved blood circulation there and further counteract the stress response, which restricts the flow of blood to your extremities and leaves them cold. As these areas feel warmer, imagine the same warmth and heaviness radiating into each muscle, one at a time. Take your time, to let the feeling sink in.

In your mind you can also picture a large magnifying glass lazily scrutinizing each segment of your body, from toes to scalp. As each muscle comes into focus under the glass, concentrate on how it feels. Give it “permission” to relax still more, and imagine the last vestige of tension seeping out as the glass glides on. Or envision a vat of “magic potion” being spilled over your head. The liquid is Relaxation in fluid form. As this warm substance oozes down your body, slowly covering every inch, feel all your nerves and muscles completely let go. Along with the release of tension, you will gradually experience increased energy and a sense of well-being. If you have difficulty capturing this imagery at first, don’t worry. Other soothing fantasies may be easier for you to conjure. All take practice. Don’t try to force them; that will only create stress. Concentrate instead on your deep breathing. The visualizations will develop at a point that’s right for you. As your breathing and imagination relax your body, your mind, too, will be freed of tension and stress and be more quiet and orderly. Remember, an anxious mind cannot exist within a relaxed body. Become aware of how you feel now compared to how you felt before you began the exercise. Developing enough mind/body awareness to distinguish the

difference will help you detect when you are feeling stressed and, equally important, when you have successfully created a state of relaxation. You can use this same technique inside your patrol car. Instead of pausing for coffee and a doughnut to “relax” (the caffeine and sugar in 3]

which will only stimulate more of the chemical stress response in your body), consider taking a “breathing break.” A few minutes of deep breathing and perhaps some visualization will drain away at least some of the stress build-up you may be experiencing from your shift and send you back to work more relaxed and re-energized. As you become proficient with this exercise, you'll be able to quicken the relaxation response. Eventually, just a few cycles of belly breathing or focused thoughts about your extremities growing warm and heavy will trigger calming signals in your mind and body, and you can relax yourself completely in one or two minutes. Then you can use an abbreviated form of exaggerated breathing throughout your tour of duty. Enroute to a call—particularly one that may become a high-risk encounter—allow yourself time for several slow, deep breaths before you leave your patrol car. This will counter unproductive stress and anxiety that may already be building up in anticipation of the contact and put youina better mental and physical state for coping with the challenges you may confront. Like some other officers, you may find that you are not conscious of stress during a high-risk call, but afterwards experience a pronounced stress “rush” that can leave you shaking, weak-kneed and mentally overwhelmed. Officers often misinterpret this as a belated fear response, when actually it stems from the body trying to readjust itself. Here you can use slow deep breathing, perhaps while walking, as'a “cool down” device to help neutralize the stress chemicals in your body as quickly as possible. Cooling down is as important to you after a stressful confrontation as it is to athletes after physical exertion. It will clear your mind and help minimize wear and tear on your heart and other organs by emphatically signalling that the alarm stage is over and your body can return to normal. “Quick fixes” of deep breathing can really be taken any time they seem comfortable or needed during your shift. They’re a way of beating the game you’re forced by your vocation to play. You can’t in most cases

alter your environment to be less stressful, but with this technique you can alter yourself to feel better in it. Longer sessions—before or after work, at bedtime or whenever is convenient—should be scheduled into your life at least once, preferably twice, daily. They allow you a total separation from your stress world, during which you can repair and recharge yourself for the next go-round. Remember: STRESS HAMPERS PERFORMANCE...RELAXATION ENHANCES IT...AND BREATHING IS THE GATEWAY TO RELAXATION.

Positive

“Self-Talk”

The relaxed state you achieve through deep breathing is the state

you need to be in to program yourself mentally to survive. Basically, this mental conditioning consists of implanting psychological and physical suggestions in your conscious and subconscious minds which will work automatically toward your protection in any high-risk encounter.

This can be done on various levels of complexity. The simplest involves generating and reinforcing positive concepts about yourself and your job that will help you deliver a winning performance under stress. 32

This goes beyond mere “positive thinking.” In reality, that is often just wishful thinking, because it is anchored more in blind hope for good luck than in skills that really warrant optimism and self-confidence. The kind of mental messages or “self-talk” you give yourself here should be rooted in the practice and mastery of the street tactics and techniques discussed throughout this book. With that background, positive mental monologues about yourself and your actions in critical situations will help banish false doubts and irrational negative expectations, which can intrude on your mind and erode performance. Positive thinking without a foundation of professional competence is an exercise in self-delusion. Positive self-talk grounded in survival proficiency is an active ingredient of mental preparation, one means of giving yourself the will to match your skill. With seclusion and without the pressure of time, once your mind is cleared and your body calmed by concentrated deep breathing, take a few moments with your eyes still closed to think about the possibility of needing to use deadly force. This is a core consideration in survival that many officers won’t— or at least don’t—let themselves ponder—until one day with an awful suddenness, their lives or others are in jeopardy and a decision to shoot or not shoot must be made instantly. Officers who’ve not thought beforehand about this issue frequently hesitate when milliseconds count. Or they over-react to the threat and pull the trigger when lesser alternatives still are viable. Or—very common—they experience extreme anguish afterwards in adjusting to having shot and ended or altered another human life.

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Lying fatally shot is the body of a man who killed an officer and shot two other officers and a woman.

Making deadly force decisions appropriately, without faltering and without crippling afterburn, requires emotional preparation. You need to raise and resolve questions that may require some soul-searching before they actually impact on your life. For instance: Are your religious and philosophical beliefs on the use of deadly force at least as liberal as the legal provisions in your state: As a police officer, the law clearly gives you the right to take a human life under certain circumstances. Can you accept that, or does the possibility even of a righteous shooting still stir moral doubts in your mind? Only you can decide the answer, and you owe it to yourself and others to be honest in your assessment.

Detective in foreground receives aid from fellow officers after being seriously wounded in a bloody shoot-out. The suspect (background) was an escaped convict serving a life sentence for murder. How do you think you would react inside if you were at this scene?

Are you ready for the nitty-gritty of lethal force: The vast majority of armed encounters occur at close range, many within touching dis-

tance of your adversary. This means you may see your opponent's eyes when you pull the trigger...or hear his last breath...or get some of his blood or brains splattered on your uniform. Unanticipated, such occurrences can be dangerously distracting during the action and haunt your memories afterwards. Anticipated, however, their effect is much less likely to be crippling. Have you considered that the person you need to shoot may not fit your stereotype of an armed adversary? Officers commonly imagine that they’l] be up against a “typical dirtbag”—a repulsive, defiant, adult male of another race who’s in the process of committing a violent felony. It’s relatively easy to be in the position of a Connecticut officer whose target 34

was a hopped up doper who'd just disemboweled his pregnant girlfriend on a public sidewalk and was still chopping at ker body when the officer confronted and shot him. But what if your assailant turns out to be a young kid of your own ethnic background who’s scared and shaking when he points a gun in your direction...or a middle-aged woman who reminds you of Mom? Is he or she going to be as easy to shoot, even if the threat is the same? Have you thought about how you will respond if you are shot! Many officers just fall to the ground and give up even though they are not truly incapacitated or fatally wounded. Offenders, on the other hand, may advance, determined to kill. Do you have the will to keep fighting? Do you understand that even in wartime combat, where heavier weapons are generally involved than those you'll confront on the street, only 10% of people shot actually die? And do you know that most of those who do die do so within a few seconds of impact? If you live long enough to comprehend that you have been hit, the odds are great that you will survive, provided you are mentally conditioned not to give up.

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Paramedics talk softly to a wounded officer after a shooting which left one dead and three wounded inside a courthouse. What thoughts have you given to coping if this had been you?

Explore your honest feelings about these and other pertinent questions as you rest alone in your relaxed state. It will be more candidly and productively done then than at a bar with other off-duty “soul searchers.” You may conclude, all things considered, that you cannot deliver deadly force. Others have reached that decision. Until they were discovered and fired, two officers on a major West Coast department habitually went on patrol with empty guns because they had decided they were incapable of shooting anyone regardless of circumstances and did not want to risk violating their conviction. If your conscience cannot accept deadly force as one of your professional options, there is no shame in that. But admit it...and LEAVE

LAW

ENFORCEMENT

IMMEDI-

ATELY! With that attitude you are dangerous to your fellow officers, to the citizens you are sworn to protect and, most important, to yourself. To remain on the street without a complete range of options for responding to threats is suicidal. Assuming you do accept the full responsibilities and obligations of being armed, it’s advisable as part of your mental conditioning to reflect on these questions and their implications periodically. And as a regular part of your preparation, you will want to underscore your commitment to using whatever legal options are necessary to survive. That’s done by programming your self-talk, the silent language with which you speak to yourself, with phrases of support. Repeating such phrases while you are relaxed imprints them on your mind. With continual reinforcement, they can have great influence. It’s well known in psychology that your thoughts do become your reality—you are what you think—through the power of your subconscious mind to respond to suggestion and shape your behavior in line with your expectations. Assuming that your talents and training permit, your subconscious will tend to guide you in the direction that you tell it to. It’s best if you construct “auto-suggestions”

in your own words.

Here are the kinds of messages to concentrate on. They’ll help you approach a high-risk situation...actually confront the stressful circumstances...and cope with the fear involved. With your eyes still closed, repeat each message at least 3 times. Concentrate on hearing your inner voice slowly say the words and absorb what they mean. Also visualize them in printed form for extra emphasis. In your relaxed mental and physical state, you can concentrate on each concept to the exclusion of other thoughts and sensations. On any high-risk call, I will survive. I have succeeded on dangerous calls before. I know the tactics I need. I know how to make the physical moves I need. I am skilled with my firearms. I can stay focused on what I have to do. I can take care of myself. I have options for controlling any problem. I can take each call step by step, without rushing. I can breathe deeply to control stress any time I start feeling tense. I can keep any situation within limits I can handle. I can decide not to be afraid. I can defeat any threat against me. I can use deadly force to save my life or the life of someone else. I can survive and keep going, no matter what, even if I am hit. 36

All suggestions should be direct and positive. Avoid negative wording, like “I won’t give up,” because it suggests the possibility of negative behavior. Permissive suggestions (“I can feel relaxed”) tend to meet less resistance from your subconscious mind than orders (“I will feel relaxed”). Change the suggestions occasionally as they seem to lose their power. NEVER

USE THE WORD

“TRY” IN ANY SUGGESTION.

That

implies doubt and the possibility of failure. Until you’ve memorized the statements that are most meaningful to you, you may want to tape record a series to play as a guide during the exercise. Record each message in a quiet, authoritative voice, and allow enough time on the tape after each suggestion for you to repeat it to

yourself and absorb it. Also consider writing out your self-talk list and posting it on your bathroom mirror, inside your closet or some other place where you can review it privately every day. As they are “psyching up” for work, some officers like to review the list to the background of motivational, “up” music, like the theme songs to such motion pictures as Rocky, Superman, Wild Geese, Star Wars and Patton.

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THE PHYSIE

Every day before going to work, the officer who wrote this list opens his dresser and reads each concept.

As you approach a potentially high-risk call, repeat these phrases in your conscious mind. That will help calm you and build your confidence by reinforcing what already is embedded and active in your subconscious mind. Any time you complete a high-risk call, use self-talk then to congratulate yourself. That will reinforce your success. Forget the superstition that you’ll tempt fate by indulging in self-praise. Actually, if you don’t credit yourself for how things turn out, you are really saying that luck and other factors outside your control are responsible for your survival. So acknowledge each achievement, no matter how small. Take a few deep breaths to relax and clear your mind, then concentrate on messages like these: “of

I did it! I did well. I dealt successfully with some tough problems.

I can feel more

comfortable

and work even more smoothly

next time.

I can control violent situations. Now I can really relax for a bit. One officer who used this kind of mental preparation was hit in the face, chest and arm one night by pellets from a sawed-off shotgun during a gunfight with a gas station robber. The officer fell to the ground but kept shooting. The suspect was hit three times but refused to drop. Suddenly, the officer felt a surge of energy and a conscious conviction that he was going to win no matter what. Although blood was streaming

down his face, he got back on his feet, tackled the suspect, and subdued him enough to handcuff. His mental preparation, the officer said later, had conditioned him ‘never to give up even if hit” and to finish successfully whatever an assailant started. “I couldn’t see because of blood in my eyes, but I kept telling myself it was no big deal...I was okay...and I was going to be just fine.” And in the end, he was.

Crisis Rehearsal The next step beyond self-talk is an advanced form of positive reinforcement called Crisis Rehearsal. Here, instead of internal verbal messages, you use “mental movies” to develop appropriate reactions to street confrontations. By repeatedly imagining yourself in a crisis where you successfully defeat a threat on your life, you “pre-set” yourself to respond with the same proficiency ina real encounter. Your fantasy practicing of proper tactics, physical movements and firearms skills “programs” your nerves and muscles to respond automatically as they need to to let you win and lessens your susceptibility to stress interference. Crisis rehearsal is not idle daydreaming. It is a purposeful drill. You are instructing yourself through visual imagery. Like other aspects of mental conditioning, it capitalizes on the mind/body partnership. In sports, this type of mental preparation is known as “playing the game in your head,” and it has been polished to a fine science. Alone ina quiet, private place, with his eyes closed, an athlete imagines himself going through a competitive experience in vivid detail from start to finish. An Olympic downhill skier visualizes every bump and every turn on the hill he’ll be running and fantasizes the precise physical movements he'll have to make to successfully maneuver each one. A pro football player methodically conjures up all the plays he is likely to see in an upcoming game and then mentally rehearses his responses to them. A professional golfer envisions himself teeing off and then experiences in his mind’s eye every fairway swing and every putt for every hole on through to the clubhouse. The same process is used by outstanding tennis players, basketball stars, diving champions, weightlifters, boxers, skeet- and trapshooters and countless others who want to correct bad habits, improve speed and strengthen their performing style. One Ameri-

can serviceman in Vietnam used this form of mental conditioning to practice his golf game while he was a prisoner of war. Every day he mentally played 36 holes on his favorite course. When he finally came home, he found that he performed better than ever in an actual game, even though he had not really held a club for seven years! Athletes face somewhat the same stress problem you do. In the midst of the game when tension is high, they can’t think clearly and creatively about movement and strategy. Their full attention needs to be on the action. Their responses have to be automatic, and in order to win, they must be desirable. Mental rehearsal is a method of making desirable patterns automatic and habitual. In all, more than 75 scientific investigations have supported its value in sports training.

There’s just no stopping Dave Cowens of the Boston Celtics. While other players relax, Cowens loosens up and uses mental rehearsal to gear his performance to another victory.

You can adapt this technique to improve your “game” on the street, where the outcome of “competition” is infinitely more important than on any sports field. And it can work for you for the same reasons it works for athletes: 1. mental rehearsal helps you “overlearn” tactics and techniques so they become second nature to you; 2. by familiarizing you with the look and feel of crisis situations, it defuses the impact of the stress-shock phenomena, and 3. it imprints learned response patterns on your system so that under pressure they guide your physical actions instantly and successfully without conscious thought. In short, this powerful psycho-physiological tool will allow you to turn what you would most like to do when your life is in jeopardy into what you will most likely do. You can Crisis Rehearse as an extension of your positive self-talk. You use the same relaxed state, induced by deep breathing, because your mind is most susceptible then to visual suggestions, just as it is to your 39

inner verbal suggestions; tension and emotional distractions tend to block the success of this technique. Also avoid doing this exercise within two hours of a heavy meal, because digestion will interfere with your ability to remain relaxed and alert. Eyes closed, body in a comfortable position, mind cleared of extraneous thoughts, imagine yourself on patrol. You’re in your vehicle, driving down a specific street or road on your beat, passing by familiar buildings and other landmarks. On your mental movie screen, you want to recreate the whole environment—sights, sounds, smells, tactile sensations, people, weather conditions, time of day—as realistically as possible. At first, you may be able to visualize clearly only certain elements of the scene, but with practice you'll learn to “dress” it with details. Once you have the sense of being there, envision yourself in some patrol function that escalates into a crisis. Say you initiate a vehicle stop, pull the violator over and approach his car. Just as you reach the rear fender, he whips around in his seat with a gun in his hand. You want to see this happen in vivid detail, as true to life as you can imagine it. Visualize yourself, the vehicle, the offender, his weapon and his movements as exactly as possible. Now consider what options you have for protecting yourself. Select a response that is effective and that you can perform, and imagine yourself doing it. Perhaps you decide to leap to your right out of the line of fire, roll over the trunk and land on your feet behind the opposite fender. There you draw down on your would-be assailant. You are mentally and physically ready to shoot, but in this case you manage to control his threat through verbal commands. As you create that reaction in your mind, see yourself making ALL the precise physical moves that would be necessary. Also, hear yourself barking out orders and note the offender’s verbal and physical responses. By forming the image thoroughly, in detail, you are making a clear mental statement of the behavior you want to accomplish. (This presupposes, of course, that you know good tactics and techniques for responding. You can’t make a good choice if you don’t know a good choice.) The first time through, you may need to start and stop the action as you create the “plot” of your scenario. Next time, see your physical movements taking place in slow motion. This will allow you to carefully observe each element of the move, where your feet are, what your hands are doing, how your body is postured, etc. As you repeat the scene again and again, gradually speed it up until it is taking place in “real time” and your physical responses are smooth and without interruption. Always imagine yourself responding deliberately, with CALM CONTROL. Always carry the rehearsal to the point that your protective reaction is made INSTA NTA NEOUSLY once you perceive a threat. And always have your imagery include the follow through that is necessary to maintain control of the situation after the main action has taken place. As you become familiar with Crisis Rehearsal, it’s important to do more than just watch yourself in a high-risk situation. Try actually to experience what being there feels like. Get into the action, let the episode touch each of your senses, so that what happens happens to you, without emotional or physical separation. This will imprint the rehearsal and its benefits more lastingly. When you rehearse mentally, the visual images actually have a training effect on you. As you carry your mind through various physical movements, your body responds similar to the way it would if you were having the experience for real. Brain signals traveling along your nerve 40

network initiate motor responses that are below your threshold of conscious awareness. Your muscles faintly but measurably tense and contract as they would if they were actually making the moves you are imagining. This gives them practice and coordination, a physical feeling for the right moves, which makes those movements easier and quicker to perform correctly in reality. In effect, you are establishing a “muscle memory” of proper responses. These responses will kick in under pressure because they are the most familiar and compelling ones your body knows. If someone confronts you on the street with a gun after extensive Crisis Rehearsal, you don’t have to think how to move; your mind and body know how to move because they have been through the proper reaction perhaps hundreds of times in your imagination. With visualization, you have used conscious suggestion (a mental picture of desired behavior) to affect unconscious processes. By the same token, your stress will be diminished in a real confrontation. This is just as important as the extra development of your motor skills. An effective way for you to desensitize yourself to emotional situations is to imagine being in them over and over again until you are able to envision them without stressful feelings. By repeatedly imagining yourself calmly controlling street crises, you defuse them. When you encounter an actual threat, you’ve “been there before,” in effect, so the stress impact is lessened. You are not overwhelmed by anxiety and panic or by the interference of the stress-shock phenomena. The mental repetition has conditioned your mind to expect a calm reaction, and the signals that it sends to your body support that expectation. Of course, on the street you will never confront exactly the same scenario as any you arrange in your head. But the principles of the survival reactions that you rehearse will carry over and apply. Understand, however, that MENTAL REHEARSAL IS NOT A ee poliTUTE

FOR

ACTUAL

PHYSICAL

PRACTICE

AND

ROLE-

PLAYING. You must know how to correctly perform the physical, tactical and firearms skills before you imagine using them. Otherwise you will not know how to carry yourself properly through the mental scenarios. Remember: your rehearsal, like your street performance, can only be as good as the tactics you know. Crisis Rehearsal is intended to complement and enhance other training, not replace it. Through a unified approach—overlearning through both mental and physical practice—you can cement important survival skills in your mind and body so they become instinctive to you. Overlearning prevents underplaying. For effectiveness, you’ll need to Crisis Rehearse at least 3 times a week, about 20 minutes each session. In a given period, you can play out from one to three different vignettes, experiencing each in slow motion maybe five times and at true speed 10 times. Vary the setting, the suspect(s) and the threat(s) presented in each so that you also are forced to vary the responses that are appropriate. This will help train you in rapid decision-making based on the nature of the threat rather than lock you into one standard reaction in every case. Think in terms of multiple options. In some scenarios, you may be searching a building... or trying to deal with a barricaded subject...or working an undercover drug buy...or responding to a silent alarm at a bank...or driving in a highspeed pursuit...or trying to arrest an emotionally disturbed individual or facing an unruly crowd when the threat occurs. The threat may be a physical attack with feet or fists or a knife...a firearms assault...an ambush by multiple assailants...an attempted disarming...or any other format by which offenders may try to hurt you. Your responses may 41

include the tactical use of cover and deployment to prevent or escape attack...the use of “empty hand” control systems...the use of equipment, such as your baton...the use of deadly force—the whole spectrum of options, depending on what would work best to resolve each threat you create. This is an ideal opportunity to play the “what if” game. You can invent innumerable “what ifs” and imagine how you'd cope with them— the more the better. Whatever threats and control tactics you select, always envision yourself performing correctly and successfully DO NOT IMAGINE FAILURE OR REHEARSE SOMETHING THE WRONG WAY OR YOU WILL REINFORCE THOSE RESPONSES. Concentrating on what you

should not do may actually prepare your body to make the very actions under stress that you want to avoid. Psychologists working with athletes find that those without an image of high performance have a difficult time producing high performance. So you want to practice as you wish to perform. In real life, you’ll find that success becomes an additional stress-reducer, not to mention a life-saver. Successfully completing any task, including a physical movement, more swiftly reduces muscle tension than does failing at the task. In your visualization, congratulate yourself for defeating the threat, just as you do with positive self-talk after resolving a high-risk incident on the street. Imagine fellow officers, family members and citizens from the community praising you for your good performance. If you’ve used

The payoff for mental rehearsal is embodied in these officers who were fired upon by a sniper outside a housing project. They were writing tickets when the shooting started. The officer on the left reacted by drawing his gun and diving for cover. The female officer ducked into her patrol car and called for back-up while releasing the trunk lid which flipped up and offered concealment from the sniper’s fire. It worked. 42

deadly force as your response option, it is especially important to believe that you acted as a representative of good and of justice on behalf of every officer in your agency and the law-abiding citizens of your community and with their full support. Remind yourself that society has a right to defend itself from evil, and in this incident you happened to be the instrument chosen to make that defense. Such an orientation in real life will help you perform with more conviction in threat situations and adjust more easily to the emotional impact afterwards if you do need to shoot someone.

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isme .

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The luckiest cop alive. The role that the mind and body play together can never be taken for granted. 43

Some officers are skeptical about Crisis Rehearsal. Some reject outright the idea that physical responses can be preconditioned to the point of becoming reflexive. But a federal immigration agent who advocates mental conditioning offers defensive driving as a parallel: “A defensive driver constantly observes his surroundings, identifies and evaluates potential threats, formulates an effective response and prepares to execute that response. If a threat materializes, he is primed to act, with minimal lag time. “After a period of defensive driving, the driver will begin to recognize recurring threat patterns and standardized responses to them. It is at that point that his reactions are almost fully conditioned and reflexive. “Similarly, a defensive officer will constantly evaluate his surroundings for threats (potential as well as real), formulate a basic response and prepare mentally to execute it. Initially, conscious thought is required to set the pattern of observation, evaluation, formulation and response in the mind. Eventually, the action of evaluation becomes unconscious and continuous, and the responses reflexive.”

Crisis Rehearsal is one powerful form of conscious thought that can advance that goal. “The degree to which an officer believes in it,” the agent adds, “will have a strong effect on how quickly it works.” Besides exercising with it in relaxed seclusion, some officers use a modified version of Crisis Rehearsal on patrol to further reinforce good responses. Every time one Miami officer gets a call, for example, he thinks of it “as old-time radio.” He tries to visualize what the scene might be like and what might happen there. He always envisions at least two possible courses of action by the suspect. “With a robbery in progress, for instance, three alternatives immediately come to mind: “1. the bad guy books with his gun down, “9. he has his gun up shooting or in a shooting position; “3. he surrenders. “Before I physically get there, I put in my mind what I’m going to do in each of those cases. I’m not deciding on what he’s going to do, just what I’m going to do. In any situation, I can control only my response in an attempt to influence the outcome. If his gun comes out and is a threat, I’m going to take care of business.”

You can also use visual imagery to rehearse new physical skills or polish old ones. This will shorten the learning time you need to become proficient. Without envisioning a specific setting or a threat, just imagine yourself going through the proper movements of the skill, whether it’s handcuffing, shooting, use of the baton, whatever. Be sure to feel yourself doing it. By slowing down the action and internalizing the correct way to execute each component of the procedure, you can lay the foundation for mastering it. As your confidence builds and the rhythm of the moves begins to feel natural, accelerate the action and then incorporate the skill into your threat scenarios. Building self-assurance through many mental repetitions will help relax you when you need to use the

skill for real. Your anxiety about errors will be minimized. In recent studies, researchers have documented that when your confidence level

increases, your blood chemistry changes.* Fewer of the stress-related hormones are active in your blood stream then than when you are fearful “The Chemistry of Confidence,” American Health Magazine, March-April, 1984.

44

or uncertain. Consequently, you feel fewer stress effects. Over time, all the tactics and techniques in your survival repertoire should be repeatedly rehearsed. If Crisis Rehearsal seems difficult at first, don’t be discouraged. A month or more may be required before you can easily construct the right mental images and notice significant improvement in your performance. Mental conditioning is a gradual process that requires steady, faithful nurturing, just like physical conditioning. You may hear the opinion that Crisis Rehearsal will promote paranoia and encourage the hair-trigger use of deadly force in unwarranted circumstances. This will not be a problem if: 1) you rehearse responding to various levels of threat with various levels of force, and 2!) you rehearse only force that is appropriate, necessary and within departmental policy to resolve each scenario. Rather than foster irresponsibility, Crisis Rehearsal will sharpen your ability to assess a situation accurately and make a valid decision about how to best control it. It is officers who are not mentally and physically conditioned in multiple tactical and skill options who are most likely to resort, out of fear, panic, over-reaction, loss of control or confusion, to inappropriate gunfire. Or they just surrender themselves to armed aggressors through inaction, faving, in effect: “Kill me.”

Your Survival

Resource

When you're in a relaxed state, reinforcing positive self-talk or rehearsing crisis responses, you can also practice another mental technique, thi$ one to help you control the fear you may experience in some street situations. Although this subject is not commonly discussed among officers, you are virtually certain sometimes to feel fear or at least extreme anxiety because of your vulnerability to danger. The answer is not to deny it, which will only increase the stress you feel, or to give in to it, which will allow you to be overwhelmed with terror. The answer is to cope with that emotion, to use it as a spark to mobilize yourself. Feeling fear does not mean you are helpless. On the contrary, you can get stronger and have your response capability enhanced during a time of fear. Indeed, you can actually train yourself to consciously find strength in fear, by tapping into what’s called your Survival Resource.

With your body relaxed and your mind clear, think back to some time when you were scared, but you responded to deal with the threat.

(Response, incidentally, does not necessarily mean action. You may have chosen to stay still in an encounter where an offender had the drop on you and it was dangerously inappropriate to move.) Whatever the situation, remember what you felt like then: did you feel strong...or weak? Was your strength calm...or agitated? Were your thoughts clear...or confused? What you want to focus on is a vivid, fearful experience with which you attempted to cope and, for at least a fleeting moment, you felt strong, controlled and clearheaded in your response. If the incident you remember was somewhat complicated or extended over a period of time, you may need to recall different aspects of it other than the image you initially conjure up in order to find this moment. In other words, move forward (or backward) in the incident until you remember yourself 45

responding as described. Somewhere in your memory that response is there; everyone has experienced such a moment at least once in the face of fear, although they may not have been consciously aware of it at the time.

When you isolate that moment, “jump into” the action in your mind. See the incident as you saw it then...hear it as you heard it then... feel it as you felt it then. When the experience seems once again to be real to you, go “beneath” the fear and feel the part of you that was able to respond strongly, clearheadedly and with control. Initially, you may have had a sense of dread or helplessness as you recognized the threat you were up against, but at the best moment of your response, feelings of weakness, confusion and agitation gave way at least momentarily to a sense of strength and control. Recapture that feeling of excellent performance fully. This is your “resource state” frame of mind. It reflects an optimal, functional core strength that makes you able to survive. The more intense your fear was, the more intense this Survival Resource had to be to carry you through the experience. What you want to develop for the future is the ability to consciously access that state of mind at will, because it represents the very best that is in you and it is the foundation of your capability to overcome even the most formidable odds. When you have recaptured this feeling, use deep breathing to clear your mind of other sensations and concentrate on it. Acknowledge that you have drawn upon this Resource in the past, that it is still an innate part of you and that it will always be there for you to call upon whenever you need it. Tell yourself that whenever you resolve that it is time to respond in the face of fear, this Survival Resource will click in and fuel your response capability. Practice calling up this mental state in the context of your Crisis Rehearsals. Develop an association with some cue so that you can summon this state in “real world” environments, too. When you experience the Resource feeling in a period of relaxation, for example, say a special word to yourself and as you say it, let the word become associated with that frame of mind. Keep repeating the word and deepening the association until merely by saying the word you can feel the state being there. Other cues can also be used, if you prefer, such as touching the thumb and forefinger of your non-gun hand together or imagining some visual image that will call up the Resource feeling. Practice this technique two or three times a day in the beginning, later once a day. After considerable practice, you should be able to use it automatically on the street. Whenever you approach a high-stress situation—or are in a circumstance where you feel fear or anxiety—use the cue to go beneath your negative emotions to bring forth the state of mind that will enable you to react with maximum confidence, effectiveness and control.

Any time you handle a tense situation well, reinforce the feeling of excellence you have to strengthen your Survival Resource. And if there is a time when you think you performed poorly, recreate the situation in your mind during a relaxation period later and imagine how you could have handled the circumstances differently, supported this time by your Resource state. Then imagine yourself actually reliving the incident with that response in order to reinforce the better option(s). There may be times when all that will keep you alive will be your ability to tap into your Survival Resource. One officer, for example, got 46

into a fight with a suspect who was much bigger and stronger than he was. At a point of exhaustion, the officer was disarmed. The offender stood over him with the service revolver, leering, while the officer begged for his life. In slow motion, the officer saw the suspect start to pull back the trigger. At that instant, the officer remembered a line from a piece of prose called “The Police Officer’s Code,” which he had learned to associate with the Resource state of mind. Suddenly energized, he sprang up, seized the gun and shot the suspect twice in an ensuing struggle. Getting in touch with his Survival Resource gave him the strength and control to turn the tables.

Awareness

Spectrum

On the street, as you respond to a high-risk call or otherwise approach what could be a crisis situation, you'll be at one of several possible levels of alertness, depending on your anticipation of danger. The better conditioned you are mentally, the more likely you will: 1) be operating at the proper level of awareness relative to the degree of readiness you need; 2) be able to detect early warning signs of a risk or threat and 3) manage to jump to a higher plane of alertness and readiness in an appropriate fashion if necessary. These factors can be decisive in how you come out. Certainly, the state of alertness with which you approach a confrontation will usually prove much more decisive than the equipment you carry in determining the outcome.

Colors can be used to mark the different levels of awareness, anticipation, concentration and self-control that constitute your mindset: Condition White: This is a state of environmental unawareness. You are oblivious to what’s going on around you, because you are daydreaming...tired...preoccupied with distractions...or assuming there is no possibility of trouble and thus no cause for alarm. As one trooper puts it, “ Your thinker is out of gear, even though your patrol car isn’t.” There is no readiness for a threat confrontation in this mental State.

Condition Yellow: You are relaxed but alert, cautious but not tense. You maintain an easy but steady 360° surveillance of the people, places, things and action around you. You are not specifically expecting a hostile act, but you are aware that aggression is possible. Because you are constantly perceiving and evaluating your environment, you are attuned to any signal that may suggest a threat potential. Your alertness is a preliminary step to action.

Condition Orange: This is a state of alarm. You know there is trouble, and you’re concentrating on evaluating it further and resolving it. Based on your training, experience, education and common sense, you have a tactical plan in mind that you begin following, including the

calling of backup...the use of cover...and the identification of an adversary who may present a threat. There’s reason to believe that a confrontation is likely. You are cognizant of the provocations that would demand that you use deadly force. The situation is volatile; you guard against over-reaction, but you think in term of controlling a threat with gunfire if necessary. Your being surprised is now impossible. Condition Red: What looks wrong is wrong. Instant reaction is 47

mandatory. You focus in on your threat and act to control it, with verbal force, physical force or deadly force, as circumstances warrant. All systems are GO, totally committed to the defense of yourself or someone else. Despite the urgency, the decisions you make are not knee-jerk reactions, but rational, based on the threat.

An officer rolls in to buy cigarettes, oblivious to a robbery-in-progress. What is the officer’s mental state?

Scene of a major disturbance. What mental state would you say the dog and the arrestee are experiencing?

The officer on the right leaves the chambers of a county judge. What mental state is he in? 48

An officer exits and sees three occupants on a low-risk stop exit at the same time. What should your mental state be here? Answers: (top of page 48) Condition White. (bottom left, page 48) Condition Red. (bottom right, page 48) Condition Yellow. (top) Condition Orange.

All of us pass at least part of our lives in “mindless” Condition White, but unfortunately many officers permit themselves to drift into this state while they are on duty and even when they are in the midst of situations that are virtually clanging with warning bells. The color suggests street virginity—pure innocence and naivete; the white belt in the martial arts symbolizes no knowledge. Yet veteran officers as often as rookies—sometimes more often than rookies—spend their working hours wrapped in White. A patrolman in Connecticut with 34 years on the job went for nearly three days without carrying his gun because his holster was torn. He didn’t think it was “worth” getting repaired immediately. in addition to his mental White-out, only one out of more than 100 fellow officers—and not his partner—noticed the absence of his weapon. In Wisconsin, several officers were conducting a building search. As one started up a flight of stairs, another appeared in a doorway at the top and said, “Come on up, it’s clear.” As he spoke, he winked repeatedly and made exaggerated facial expressions. Also his holster was empty. But the advancing officer noticed none of this and hurried upstairs—where he was taken hostage by an offender who had disarmed and was hiding behind the first officer. Officers like these are on fertile ground for fatal surprise. Condition White may actually encourage attack, even on what seem to be “safe” assignments. On the Western desert, a deputy pulled into a highway rest stop to check a minor traffic mishap; a car had run off the highway into a ditch nearby. The driver, quiet and dazed, was slumped in a chair at a campsite with a blanket wrapped around him. Tourist families were milling about. The deputy took the man’s license, turned his back and

49

bent over the hood of his patrol car to fill out his report. The driver jumped from his chair and shot the deputy in the head with a .22 he had concealed under the blanket. He had seemed to be an unremarkable accident victim, but he was in fact an ex-convict wanted for questioning in two murders in another state.

nly

fv

The officers in this scene are looking for gunmen who moments earlier shot a homicide investigator. Notice the different levels of caution used by these officers.

If officers attacked in White ever realize the crisis that is upon them before they are injured or killed, they realize it too late. After eonic lag time from the startle response, they try in one giant leap to escalate from White to Red to defend themselves. But the mental and physical adjustments required are too enormous. Massive, unexpected stress is deluging their systems, and under this emergency ultra-mobilization they fail to land in Red. Instead, they shoot off the color spectrum into: Condition Black: Panic... misdirected frenzy...paralysis. It’s called Black because your mind is blacked out and because it symbolizes the ultimate black moment: Lights out for you. In Condition Black, your eyes may fixate on the threat... you may point at the assailant, as if your finger is a magic ray gun... you may hit, kick or grapple ineffectually or shoot wildly... you may fearfully back 50

away or turn and run in desperation... you may fall to the ground in defeat... you may be immobilized. One version of Black was experienced

by a transit officer in Ohio who was fired on twice without provocation while on patrol one night. He bailed out of his car, an initial good reaction. But then he froze, unable to take action while the assailant leisurely blasted away at him with three more rounds. The officer’s mind was swimming with disbelief (That motherfucker’s really trying to kill me!”’) instead of commanding a response. Conditions Orange and Red can be held as states of mind for only brief periods of time. If you try to operate continually at these advanced levels of awareness, you will quickly become exhausted or psychotic. But Condition Yellow can be sustained indefinitely without undue nervous strain. Yellow is the state of mind you should be operating in all the time

you are on patrol, prior to the actual detection of a potential threat. Seldom are officers hurt by something they could not have anticipated or seen and moved to avoid or control had their antennae been up for danger signals. Alertness and the tactical edge it offers actually discourage attack. It’s ironic but true that the officer who is habitually prepared to defend himself rarely has to. In a lesser state of alertness, you are more likely to be made as an easy mark, and any tactical knowledge and skills you have will be lost irretrievably in the White “fog.” Condition Yellow is not a guarantee of protection, but it gives you the best odds for reading danger cues and moving in proper sequence and in a controlled manner up to Orange and on to Red if necessary. Anticipating danger and thinking and planning ahead will reduce your startle response if danger does explode. If an immediate escalation to Red is required, the jump from Yellow is much easier to accommodate than from White, because the springboard of alertness is already there. You can see the problem, decide what to do and then begin doing it—all within a split second. Consider an incident in the East in which officers were searching an abandoned apartment for an armed suspect believed to be hiding there. One officer entered the kitchen, glanced around casually, then passed on to another room. Just behind him, a second officer entered—and noticed shelves from a refrigerator scattered on the floor. This registered on his Yellow mental state as a possible warning. Maybe the shelves had been

thrown there by a previous tenant—or maybe the suspect had tossed them out to make a hiding place inside! The officer shifted to Orange, took cover and prepared to challenge the refrigerator at gunpoint. His verbal commands were delivered in Condition Red. If the door had been flung open and a threat presented, he could have reacted without hesitation. The suspect was inside but surrendered meekly. Only luck had guarded the first officer, who had wandered through the suspect’s potential kill zone in Condition White. The need for heightened awareness on the street is documented by an extensive analysis of police shooting incidents.‘ The study reveals how quickly violence develops. In over half the shootings involving police officers, shots are fired within 60 seconds of an officer’s arrival on the scene. In a significant number of cases (45%), the shootings occur while the officer is alone, before any backup arrives to support him. Given those limitations, your only reliable ally is going to be yourself, with your mind conditioned and in a state of readiness for

defense. ‘Nielsen and Eskridge, “Police Shooting Incidents,” Law and Order, March, 1982.

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An incredible sequence of an officer’s ability to shift from one mental state to the next higher and finally to the use of deadly force. The off-duty officer (striped shirt) stands at the counter to conduct a personal transaction (Condition White). Suddenly the offender in the white cap announces a stick-up. Look at how the officer shifts to Condition Yellow immediately. In Condition Orange he slowly bends down to decrease his vulnerability. In the bottom photo the officer assumes a kneeling position in Condition Red and incapacitates the offender with multiple rounds. Back in Condition Orange, he then positions himself in a non-threatening manner so responding officers will not rush in, thinking he’s the robber.

52

TACTICAL THINKING

One of the saddest truths of the police world is that officers who exhibit no survival thinking whatsoever so often end up lionized. They’re downright reckless in approaching high-risk situations, but they’re trumpeted by the media, their community, their administrators, even their fellow officers, as heroes who demonstrate “the stuff good cops are made of.” Example: A plainclothes sergeant in the Midwest, responding to a silent alarm at a shoe store, looked through the front window and saw one armed robber rifling a cash register, another herding customers and employees at gunpoint into a rear storage room. Outnumbered, without waiting for backup and without his own gun drawn, the sergeant strode right through the front door. He managed to surprise the first gunman and disarm him. The second surrendered after other officers arrived. It was then discovered that the sergeant had been targeted for easy killing just seconds after he penetrated the scene. From a hiding place in back, the second robber had squeezed the trigger on him six times. Every round in his revolver bore a heavy dent from the firing pin—but none had gone off. That miracle alone prevented a probable officer death, the devastation of a police family, a major escalation of the incident and a potentially tragic compounding of danger to other police and civilian lives. Yet the sergeant drew his department’s highest award for valor, the state chiefs’ association’s highest medal for honor and the praise of the press for “meritorious service.” His administrators held his behavior up to his fellow officers as the kind of professional skill and thought “for which we all strive.” They specifically commended his “total disregard for his own safety.” When foolhardiness is equated with professionalism, somebody doesn’t understand professionalism. One survival-conscious officer jotted down his feeling on the subject in a note to his trainer: “The Deman of The SeRvice, and The imporTence of The Job. Are Never so Great that you can noT Take Time To do The Job SafEly”. His spelling’s not so hot, but his thinking’s right on. And what’s ironic is that by thinking selfprotectively you still can resolve volatile situations favorably, not only with less risk to yourself but to citizens you may be trying to defend. Good self-protective thinking means good Tactical Thinking: not just rushing in, flaunting your machismo and hoping for the best, but

analyzing the situation you're up against...anticipating what problems you might encounter. ..and deciding what you say and do as part ofaplan for controlling the action. Failing to understand that all this can be done is what leads some officers to react emotionally with ill-advised “heroics.” Failing to understand how it should be done leads others to tactical failures. They may talk a good show about survival, but they’re not able to actually apply survival principles in a meaningful way on the street. Some, for example, rigidly compartmentalize their thinking. They memorize and try to apply one set of prescribed procedures for responding to all silent alarms...another for conducting all building searches,.,another for making all vehicle stops. Other officers are conditioned into poor tactical thinking by their range training, Even some “stress-combat” courses, supposedly teaching “survival shooting,” still ingrain bad habits; they just do it under more pressure, A top marksman recently ran the gauntlet on one such course, featuring remote-controlled turning targets. He consistently delivered fast, center-mass shots, but his performance was tactically illiterate. Near the start, he jumped up from behind a wall to shoot a target 6 feet away. When three targets turned on him simultaneously, he stood his ground in the open and shot his pistol dry—only to have another “assailant” spin around as he was reloading, also without cover. In moving from one target station to the next, he ran exposed along an open trail, He would doubtless have been a victim many times over in an actual gunfight. Yet he was scored highly on the basis of time and accuracy. On the same course, another shooter, tactically more astute, just raised his pistol with one hand and shot over the wall at the first target, without exposing his head or torso, Instead of running down the trail, he zig-zagged along a brushy creek bed that paralleled the course. He scoped out targets from cover, patiently waited out their turning and moved on only when each “adversary” had been eliminated. The instructor was furious when this shooter finished because he’d “acted silly” and “done it wrong” by going outside the course boundary!

Tactics

4%)

|\ \ ACCURACY

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One way to remember the importance of tactics and tactical thinking is to arrange in the order of importance the four considerations involved in a shooting. The acronym TAPS and what it means should be reflected in your qualification course as well, Note how speed is rated of least importance in a

shooting, yet so important on most ranges. Why?

Tactical Thinking that works involves a simple formula: you match options for detense and control to the type of threat you're facing. Obviously, that’s easier said than done, But it is gasier done than a lot of 54

officers imagine. The key is the way you think, That’s going to be more important to your survival than the kind of firearm you carry, the kind of ammunition it’s loaded with or the kind of scores you pull down in “practical” shooting. Good Tactical Thinking begins with assessing your potential dan gers. And that begins with your recognizing that despite their infinite variety of detail, high-risk situations share some universal characteris: tics. People and places can present threats to you in only certain ways, Once you understand those ways, it is then possible for you to readily evaluate the threat potential in any situation you confront, including one that’s entirely new to you. And once you've identified your true hazard in a given situation, you’re then in a position to apply the appropriate measures to overcome it. Achieving all this involves only a few cardinal concepts, but they can revolutionize your street behavior. As you grasp the principles of Tactical Thinking, you may discover that some tactics you’ve been taught or have used in the past are wrong for the situations they’re

supposed to help you control. You'll see what’s real/y needed to do the job and why, New tactics and techniques you read about in this book or hear about elsewhere will be easier for you to evaluate and use, You’ll have guidelines for creating your own tactical maneuvers. And you'll be able to judge your tactical capability before it’s put to the acid test at the end of an assailant’s gun.

Threat

Assessment

When you answer any call or approach any street situation, three terms—the triad of Tactical Thinking—should be at the forefront of your conscious thought: * Problem Area * Area of Responsibility * Focus Point These are touchstone concepts that will help you assess the risk you may be facing and react to it. You can use them as a “sorting out” mechanism for reducing confusion and properly directing your attention under

stress. They'll help you: l. categorize different elements of the scene you're approaching 2. establish priorities for control 3. formulate a tactical plan 4. monitor your safety as you progress through the call, and

5. effectively neutralize threats you may encounter. These

concepts

are

Rehearsal scenarios.

also

important

to incorporate

in your

Crisis

Practicing applying them there will help make

them automatic to you in the field. A Problem Area is any PERSON, OB/ECTor SITE that may produce a HAZARD to you. Besides human beings, Problem Areas commonly include dogs, buildings, vehicles, fields, woods, alleyways, excavations, dumpsters, booby traps—anything at a scene that could harbor a threat, even though the threat is not immediately visible or known. Often you have more than one Problem Area to contend with. If you stop a suspect for a field interrogation and he has companions with him, each constitutes a separate Problem Area. On a “shots fired” or “man with a gun” call at a residence, you may find a house, a garage, a storage

shed, a couple of cars, shrubbery, fences, large trees—an abundance of potential threat locations. On a traffic stop, if the driver and passengers

get out, you then have multiple mobile Problem Areas, plus the vehicle itself with its hidden unknowns. Problem Areas require prompt identification. And as soon as you see one, you want to “grab a little A.S.S.” In this case, that means Assess Situation and Structure, You need to determine what is going on right now,,..what threat(s) this action is currently presenting, if any... and what threat potential could develop a few seconds or a few moments (in some cases, maybe a few hours) from now. In particular, what you're looking for as you assess the Problem Areas are “Areas of Responsibility,” An Area of Responsibility is an EXACT LOCATION within a Problem Area from which an ATTACK could emanate. Some portions of any Problem Area are “hot spots,” the places that have the greatest

possibility for producing threats. On a human being, they’re the hands, the feet and the head, An attack by a person will emanate from one or more of those spots because they can either hold or be used as assault weapons (a subject can butt with his head). With a car, any threat will come through a window or an open door or from the trunk. With a building, exterior threats will generate from the rooftop or around corners, While doors and windows are the likeliest outlets for an attack from inside. Each of these is an Area of Responsibility. (Technically, shooting out through the walls of a building is also a possibility, but in real life this can be difficult to do and few offenders actually attempt it. Don’t forget upper windows, though. Assailants can climb steps, and with that high-ground advantage some have picked off officers several hundred yards away.)

Emotionally disturbed gunman threatening he won't be taken alive. Because of available information, the newsman is not regarded as a Problem Area at this point. The subject for sure is the Problem Area, The Areas of Responsibility are the hands and the gun, Officer uses

appropriate tactics trom behind cover, yo

Your responsibility regarding any Area of Responsibility is two fold: 1) to detect and 2) to control any threat that emanates from it. Areas

of Responsibility demand your immediate attention, They must become the framework that shapes your tactical planning, Even if an Area of Responsibility reveals no present evidence of threat (an empty hand, for instance), it still warrants continued awareness, at least peripherally. As you progress through a call, ask yourself three key questions as precautions against overlooking Areas of Responsibility or

rushing into

situations that you don’t understand or that may be more complex than you initially assumed: 1. Where are my potential hazards in this situation! Say you're approaching a residence on a domestic and a female comes out to meet you on the front walkway. Consider: Where are the doors and windows from which you could be seen and shot by someone still inside,.,What other locations could harbor an unseen assailant...Is the woman herself a potential threat? 2. Do I control those hazards? At the scene described, there are threat locations you do not control. Any threat that may be hidden—like someone who can see you through a window but whom you cannot sce is automatically uncontrolled, The unknown is always high-risk. Stand

ing on the walkway exposed to such Areas of Responsibility at the front of the residence increases your potential danger. 3. If |don’t currently control my hazards, how can I do sof In this

case, consider the nearby cover possibilities: a large tree, a porch support, a car parked in the driveway. Direct the female to a cover position for questioning and stand so you face the residence and her back is to it,

Periodically check from around your cover to assess the scene, And remain aware of the woman

as an additional threat potential,

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Inside this bar is a hostage-taker who has fallen asleep, Three of four officers shown here prepare to make entry. The officer on the right controls his Area of Responsibility (doorway) and the officeron the left controls his (the window) but failed to use cover, The third officer is now safe

for entry without a crossfire problem

When danger does erupt from an Area of Responsibility, you then have a “Focus Point.” A Focus Point is a CLEAR and PRESENT THREAT that must be immediately CONTROLLED to protect you or another innocent party. You concentrate (Focus) your attention, your energy and your skill against it, either in defensive moves or in counterattack. This is the moment when you will be under maximum stress, and in that condition you will have to Focus in order to function. Exactly where you Focus your response can be tricky. To be most effective, you need to Focus in some cases on the weapon as your true hazard, in other cases on the person wielding the weapon. Time and distance can make the difference.

only the gun, not knowing that both hands as well as the gun are Areas of Responsibility. The hidden hand is an unknown hazard. Better to have suspect place gun on window ledge and exit building.

Say you're in the open, far from cover, and a suspect gets the drop on you but you’re within touching distance of his gun. If you try to quickdraw and shoot him, time is against you; his gun is already out and pointed at you. If you physically attack his head or some other part of his body in an effort to control him, he can still get a round off. Your proper Focus Point in this case is the gun. That is your true hazard and you can control it immediately, with a disarming move. Controlling him then can be done with subsequent maneuvers. On the other hand, if you are farther away and you already have your firearm in a ready position when the threat is made, your proper Focus Point is the person. At that distance, you must control the person to

control the gun, so he becomes your true hazard. Deadly force directed center mass is likely your best hope of stopping his lethal threat quickly. {Of course, in most jurisdictions before legally using deadly force you must reasonably believe that the gun constitutes an imminent, severe threat to you or someone else. You cannot shoot a person just because he is armed.) Two California officers were called to deal with a man who was lounging against the entryway of a hotel with a cocked revolver in his hand. The officers drew down on him from several yards away. The suspect, who was standing in profile to them, lowered the gun to arm’s length on his far side, then slowly began to turn the barrel toward one of the officers, who had not yet reached cover. The gun was well below the offender’s waist and the officer was able to watch it in his peripheral vision. But the Focus Point was the offender’s upper torso. As the gun barrel moved up, the officer incapacitated the suspect instantly with multiple shots. Ce A ee

A

ed

Areas of Responsibility include burglary suspect’s hands, feet, and the officer’s own weapons. The officer chose to focus on the head and neck, rather than apply a tactic which controlled hands and feet.

It seems logical enough on the printed page, but under stress officers time and again misperceive their true hazard and proper Focus Point. In South Dakota, a patrolman walked up to the driver’s open window on a nighttime traffic stop and found himself staring down a gun barrel. He selected the offender’s neck as his Focus Point and tried to choke him with a hammer lock, ignoring the hand with the gun. The offender, his gun hand unrestrained, fired and almost killed the officer. In a similar case in a Great Lakes state, a prisoner disarmed an officer inside a police station and pointed the sidearm at another officer who was just touching distance away. That officer, too, lunged for the suspect’s head—and was easily shot and killed. On the other hand, if you examine targets with realistic figures used on stress firearms courses, you'll notice that bullet

holes often are grouped around the target figure’s gun; officers have fixated on the weapon as their Focus Point, although shots at a gun rarely will prevent the subject holding it from pulling its trigger. Such inappropriate Focus may well be a factor in why officers have such poor track records for hitting center mass in gunfights. They often do better on the range shooting silhouette targets, where nothing competes with the printed 10-ring for their Focus Point attention. In some situations, time and distance may be so loaded against you that you cannot realistically Focus on either the weapon or the person presenting the threat. In that case, your only chance to control it may be immediate tactical retreat—exiting the danger area by leaping or diving to cover, ducking to a place of concealment, or running like hell. Then what you want to Focus on is the place you’re moving toward. You can relate these concepts in the threat assessment triad to the awareness color codes. As you approach a Problem Area and begin analyzing it, your mental state should be Yellow—alert, evaluating what you see, conscious that danger may be present. As you identify and assess your Areas of Responsibility, you may escalate to Orange, the alarm state. In the California incident mentioned above, as soon as the officers saw the revolver in the subject’s hand (their prime Area of Responsibility), they readied themselves mentally and physically for action. The suspect’s movement of his gun barrel toward one officer was almost imperceptible; a videotape of the incident filmed by a television crew later had to be slowed down and magnified to confirm it. But in his ultraattentive Orange state, the officer noticed the subtle but heightened threat from that Area of Responsibility. When he opened fire on the Focus Point, he was in Condition Red, as you also need to be when you act against a point of Focus to defend yourself. Otherwise you remain in Orange or below, not the level of mental intensity required. Controlling a Focus Point is difficult and laden with risk, even if you have devoted a lot of time to Crisis Rehearsal and role-playing and have outstanding firearms skills. Consequently, your goal on the street is to prevent

any situation

from

escalating to that point. You want

to

resolve calls without the necessity of moving to Condition Red and having to act immediately to save your life. The better you identify and work to control Problem Areas and Areas of Responsibility, the better 60

your chances of avoiding threat confrontations. Yet many officers do not take these concepts into consideration at all when deploying. Inside a residence during a disturbance call in Massachusetts, a deputy chief was shot in the chest with a .45 and gravely wounded. His assailant remained free and still armed inside the two-story house. Officers who surrounded the place knew the circumstances, yet none paid the slightest heed to the Areas of Responsibility within that Problem Area. They disembarked from their patrol cars right in front of the house, in full view and easy firing range of upper and lower windows...Some casually stood, guns holstered, on the front porch in front of windows and a partially glass door... Some stood in the street without cover with their backs to the house. Although there was a lot of weaponry and personnel outside eventually, including a special weapons team, the assailant controlled that scene without even knowing it. Only his decision not to attack again protected those very vulnerable officers, not their tactical “thinking.”

Location of the Massachusetts Incident.

Similarly, a suburban officer in Illinois making an all-too-typical vehicle stop recently placed his fate solely with the violator he had pulled over. The officer stopped a teenager driving a junker with no plates. He parked his patrol car only a foot behind his Problem Area (the violator car), shortening his time and distance for observation and assessment. Then as he made his approach, he permitted the driver to step out, thereby creating another, ambulatory area of potential threat. Both the driver’s hands (two of the officer’s Areas of Responsibility) were in his jacket pockets. The officer made no effort to get them visible... he walked past two other Areas of Responsibility, the windows on the driver’s side, without checking inside...and he stood in front of the windshield to 61

write a ticket, with the violator, hands still concealed, several feet behind him and out of view. Again, the only control at that scene was the violator’s, which in this case turned out to be cooperative. A California officer was less fortunate when he acted equally oblivious to Tactical Thinking. On patrol about midnight, he spotted

two men acting suspiciously around a truck entrance to a warehouse. The entry’s overhead door was open, the interior dark—clearly an Area of Responsibility that could be hiding an unseen threat who might already be prepared to attack. By definition, Areas of Responsibility demand immediate attention. But the officer ignored the doorway. Indeed, he parked at an angle to the front of it (that is, in front of a potential threat source that he did not control), put his high beams on the two suspects, ordered them to stop and then stepped out to question them. The officer had misinterpreted his hazards by assuming that these suspects were his only true threats. From the darkened doorway a third offender hit him in the chest with a blast of 00 buck from a sawed-off 12 ga. shotgun. The officer returned fire and missed. One of the visible suspects then pulled a .38 cal. revolver and shot the fallen officer once. A second round impacted his portable radio. ‘ { 63 t ' ! t t ' ' 1 1 tea a ri 1

62

Had he understood the concept of Area of Responsibility, the officer could have deployed more astutely. At the very least, he could have shined his spotlight into the doorway to illuminate the shadowed interior and then have exited on the other side of his patrol car, using it as concealment and possibly some cover between himself and that potential threat location. And facing alone so many Problem Areas (the building and each visible suspect) and Areas of Responsibility (at least five, counting the open doorway and each suspect’s hands), he could have summoned aid for better control. Backup was available 3 minutes away, but never called.

Sometimes officers initiate action in situations without seeming to realize that they face more potential threat locations than they can possibly control. A lieutenant with an Eastern housing authority police department, for instance, was off-duty and in civilian clothes in a tavern when three armed robbers invaded the place. Even though he was clearly outnumbered and was not himself in any immediate threat, he drew his handgun and tried to control the offenders. In an exchange of gunfire, he was shot in the chest at close range and killed. If he had analyzed the scene on the basis of Problem Areas and Areas of Responsibility, he might have better comprehended that he was up against more hazards than he could successfully defend against. Whenever this is the case, it is ALWAYS a signal to lie low, back off or summon aid, unless you are forced to defend yourself as best you can against imminent or active assault. Where backup is used, you want to divide Problem Areas and Areas of Responsibility between you so that no one officer is overloaded. Taking on more such Areas than can effectively be controlled is probably the most common tactical pitfall. From a Tactical Thinking standpoint, it’s usually absurd for just two officers (and certainly for one) to be expected to safely search a large building or control a large group of suspects. There are more Problem Areas and Areas of Responsibility in those circumstances than can ever be watched and managed effectively with such limited manpower. Rarely is the ideal possible: one officer assigned to each Area of Responsibility. But the ratio should be such that if violence erupts from one or more potential threat locations, you will not be automatically overwhelmed. Again, time and distance will help determine your limitations. 63

The greater the distance between you and your Areas of Responsibility and the more reaction time you can build for yourself (through invisible deployment, use of cover, weapon readiness, the use of restraining devices, etc.), the better your chances for controlling several threat locations simultaneously.

Dk reg >

ES

Sag

There is a deployment problem here. But why? Officer with shotgun is attempting to control multiple Areas of Responsibility (hands, feet, window). Three officers control one Area of Responsibility (doorway). A cover officer and arrest officer could control the suspect, while the third officer covers the door, and the fourth officer covers the window.

Be careful when dividing Areas of Responsibility that all get covered.

Sometimes

several officers concentrate

on only one or two,

leaving others unmonitored. Three West Coast detectives, for example, arrested a band of five religious terrorists and proned them out in a parking lot. They constituted five Problem Areas. Their feet were probably useless for assault in that position, but their hands still were potential threat locations. Yet with five Problem Areas and at least ten Areas of Responsibility to cover, all three detectives concentrated their gaze on only one place during most of the arrest process: the semiautomatic rifle. Because of its close proximity and high threat level, the .30 calibre carbine could be considered an eleventh. Had one of the terrorists made a sudden movement for another gun in a waistband or a pocket, his action might have been noticed in time. But extremist groups, especially, tend to be trained in the art of “subtle movement”— moving so slowly and in such small increments that the action can’t normally be detected in peripheral vision. With all the officers’ attention elsewhere, one of the other Areas of Responsibility could conceivably have been able to inch gradually to a hidden gun and become transformed into a Focus Point without the officers having even been aware of it. 64

The Problem Areas in the terrorist arrest incident are identified by number. The officers who responded are noted by letters. A better approach to consider: officer A maintains cover of suspects 2 thru 5. Officer B removes the carbine as he directs his primary attention to suspect 1’s hands. Officer C directs his attention away from the carbine, and assists Officer A with control of suspects 2 thru 5. Officers E and F should then move in and assign themselves to one of the remaining suspects for control. Officer D could either assign himself a suspect or work inner perimeter control.

Deliberate distraction from your Area of Responsibility is another problem you need to guard against. One officer stopped a subject for a field interview and told him to approach her location. At first, she properly kept her eyes on his hands, but as he got close he began making subtle glances over his shoulder. The officer shifted her gaze to see what he was looking at—and in that instant, the abandoned Area of Responsibility (the suspect’s hand) drew a gun and shot her. In a domestic disturbance, a husband who’d been threatening his wife with a revolver raised his hands and said he wanted to surrender when an officer arrived. His gun was dangling from his index finger, upside down and apparently in no position to fire. The officer commanded him to lay the weapon on the floor. The man started to lean down, but he continued to look directly at the officer and to talk a blue streak. Something he said caused the officer to glance away from his hand and into his eyes. Of course, the offender knew how to fire without putting the gun fully into his hand— and he did, with fatal results. Eye contact is one of your greatest distraction risks. From childhood on, most of us are told to “look people in the eye” as a mark of respect and 65

sincerity. Even in threat situations, this is a tough habit to overcome. Experiments with recruits have shown that often they notice a handgun in a suspect’s hand only when he and the gun are positioned in profile to

them. Facing a gunman head-on, they tend to look at his eyes and miss the weapon altogether. Remember: eyes may “spit fire” in cheap novels, but they don’t spit bullets on the street. Eyes are never an Area of Responsibility. If a threat does occur from an Area of Responsibility despite your best efforts, your ability to understand and apply the Focus Point principle of Tactical Thinking will then be pivotal to your survival. Two important considerations: 1. Do not confuse the channeling

of concentration involved in Focusing with “tunnel vision.” Proper Focus directs your attention and the full force of your energy when and where they need to go to stop the threat—and for only a very limited amount of time, measured sometimes in mere fractions of a second. If you don’t Focus, you weaken the response you deliver or you fail to respond at all. Tunnel vision, on the other hand, is a form of Condition Black. In a sense, it is inappropriate Focus; you lock your attention in too soon...too late...too long...on the wrong stimulus...or for no defensive or offensive purpose. You may, for

example, stare transfixed at your assailant’s gun. In that or any other tunnel mode, you cannot react properly to your true hazard.

An eerie example of how easy it is to lose control of your Problem Area. Officer went into this barbershop to arrest this bank robber. Note how vulnerable the officer is to being disarmed.

2. Do not separate your Focus. Depending upon time and distance, you may be able to monitor more than one Problem Area or Area of Responsibility simultaneously, but you cannot successfully control more than one Focus Point at a time. This may seem mandatory to do if you are under attack by multiple adversaries. But think in bird-hunting terms. When a covey of quail flies up, the novice usually tries to blast away at the whole group and hits nothing. The experienced hunter aims at the lead bird and shoots it, then beads on another. He deals with one Focus 66

Point at a time. If three attackers assault you at once and you try to shoot

all simultaneously, they will overwhelm you. Condition Red demands all your attention at one location, undivided, at least briefly. Try to determine your most immediate and serious threat and deal with it as your first Focus Point. When you eliminate it, you have decreased the group’s ability to assault you by one-third. When you stop the second threat, you’ve knocked out half the remaining assault force. Then you deal with your final Focus Point. Between each adversary, your mind may flicker for a split-second back to Orange, allowing you to evaluate any change in the situation. Survival has to do with probability of risk, preparing for threats as they are most likely to occur. You can’t erase al! hazard; no law-enforce ment officer can. But by using the principles of Tactical Thinking, you can substantially reduce your risk and increase the odds on your side,

Can you believe this?

Thought

Processes

As part of your tactical strategy for avoiding a direct threat, you need to understand the Thought Processes involved in an assault. That is, the mental steps an adversary must go through to harm you—and the steps you must complete to defend yourself. As with other Tactical Thinking concepts, Thought Processes apply to unarmed as well as armed situations, but they’re especially important where deadly force is a

possibility on either side. To assault with any reasonable hope of success, an offender must LOCATE you by sight, sound, intuition or some other of his senses. He must REACT; that is, prepare for aggression, as by cocking his fist or 67

pointing his gun. And he must actually ATTACK, delivering the act of aggression for which he has primed. Usually these steps occur in that sequence, but not always. Say you're searching a storage area on a burglary-in-progress call and the suspect is hiding behind a packing crate. He hears you coming, but before he can either Locate or Attack you, he first has to React, by popping up from behind or around his cover to get a visual. Whatever the order, a would-be assailant has only those three Thought Processes to accommodate. Which puts you at a distinct disadvantage—because you have four that are necessary to respond to his threat. You, too, must Locate him...prepare to React with defensive or offensive moves of your own...and try to control the threat, by actually delivering a counterattack with deadly force, by performing a physical defense measure (such as disarming) or by tactically retreating. But somewhere along the way, you must also IDENTIFY that the offender is indeed initiating an assault. This may occur before you prepare to respond to his threat or after such preparation. If you skip this Thought Process, you could find yourself in hot legal soup. You may Locate an armed burglar in a storage area, for instance, and React by drawing down on him. But before you can actually squeeze the trigger justifiably, you need to Identify that an attack from him is imminent or already underway. In high-risk situations, you may repeatedly reach the React step in your Thought Processes, but unless you have already Identified an urgent threat or do so as your next step, you will have to abort your counterattack.

The officer takes a position where the suspect can’t see him, thereby interfering with suspect’s Thought Processes.

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Officers conduct door-to-door search for six jail escapees. Absence of a tactical plan makes it easy for suspects to locate these officers. They have also eliminated the possibility of interfering with the suspects’ Thought Processes. Is this really searching?

What this extra Process means for you is a certain built-in Jag time. Even with top mental conditioning and the keenest anticipation of danger working on your behalf, to Identify (comprehend) that an act of aggression is taking place will require about “0 to % second. That’s how much longer it will take you, at aminimum, to respond to an attack than it takes an assailant to make one. This is not because of negligence on your part; it’s because of nature...and it represents a real limitation. The tactical way to overcome this disadvantage is to compensate for it by understanding and manipulating Thought Processes. As one simple example, say you’re attempting to arrest an offender

who has a gun in his hand. You’ve drawn down on him but you’re not behind cover. So long as he is facing you, even if his hands are in a surrender position, he can shoot before you can respond if he decides to Attack and moves fast. Role-play this with cap guns or blanks if you’re skeptical. He knows when he’s going to act; you don’t. He has already Located you, so he has only two Thought Processes left before he can

harm you: 1) React and 2) Attack. You’ve Located him, too, but you still have your other three Processes to accommodate before you can stop him, and the minimum */o second it takes you to Identify his aggressive movement will invariably leave you lagging. To compensate, turn the gunman around so he’s facing away from you, then move silently to a different position, behind cover if possible. By turning him, you’ve added back a Thought Process to his roster— Locate; he now has to move (turn) to find you before he can Attack you. Because you still can see him, you’ve already completed your Locate Process. So with this simple maneuver, turning him, you’ve evened things up. In fact, you’ve probably gained an edge on him. In most cases, it will take him longer to Locate you than for you to Identify his 69

aggressive movement to do so. You’ve bought yourself time with which to stop him. As you plan tactically for handling high-risk situations, five broad, key concepts will help you compensate for your disadvantage by interfering with a suspect's Thought Processes: 1. Invisible deployment. If the suspect does not know you are present or at least does not know exactly where you are, he will not be able to Locate you for assault. He may shoot or strike out randomly in a

blind effort to hit you, but then he is depending on luck rather than true target acquisition, and luck may be no more dependable for him than for you. 2. Surprise. If you can deploy or move in an unexpected way, the suspect will have greater difficulty either Locating you or Reacting to your presence with a plan of assault. Surprise, by definition, goes handin-hand with invisible deployment. 3. Distance. Generally speaking, the farther you can stay from a potential adversary, the longer it will take him to React and Attack. Certainly where physical assault is concerned, the more distance he has to cover to reach you, the slower his attack must be, and the more time you'll have to Identify the threat, React and Control his aggression. It’s well documented that the closer you get to a suspect, the greater your chance of injury. You’re safest, of course, when you can remain beyond the effective range of whatever weapon he has. 4. Restraint. In an eagerness to get the job done, Biicers often shortcut good tactics or rush into territory controlled by a potentially hostile subject. If you take your time and make him come to a position you control, you are likelier to interfere with all his Thought Processes.

a \+

a

i :

18 One of the major problems with this hostage-taker and arresting officer is that the

suspect has not been placed at a disadvantage. Better to have turned him around (making it harder to locate you) then select a search position, and then approach from a point of cover. If the suspect had weapons inside his cap, could he have defeated the officer at this point? 70

Two suspects took an officer’s revolver when their car was pulled over. Later, this arrest of one took place. Suspect should have been turned around, brought away from the vehicle to eliminate cover for him, and far greater distance maintained.

5. Cover. Undoubtedly the most important compensation of all. If you can position yourself behind something that will truly stop bullets and when you move, move from one cover location to another, a suspect cannot successfully attack. Cover also gives you more time to Identify any threat he may pose. Where a physical assault is concerned, even putting some kind of physical barrier that doesn’t qualify as true cover between yourself and a suspect can be helpful. A hedge, a mailbox, your patrol car or some other object separating you will slow down his Attack Process. As these concepts suggest, your goal always is to maximize or lengthen the Thought Processes for the offender while, where possible, minimizing and shortening your own. Too often, however, officers’ actions tend to conveniently remove Processes for their opponents, so an attack by a suspect can be made even faster. One night, two veteran Indiana officers spotted a subject walking hurriedly in a darkened part of town a few blocks from where a service station had been robbed shortly before. They approached from behind and ordered him to stop and put his hands up. Then, while standing only 8 feet away without cover, they commanded him to turn and face them. That order—a “gift” which cut his Thought Processes down to two—set them up. In the poor light, they had failed to see a small semi-automatic in the suspect’s right hand. When he turned, he whipped his arm down, fired, and hit one of the

officers. Understanding Thought Processes can help you evaluate Areas of Responsibility to establish your tactical priorities where deployment is concerned. Say you’ve entered a living room where a gunman may be hiding. In front of you is a sofa and off to the side is a darkened closet with the door ajar. Which is your most severe hazard, demanding your most immediate attention? 7]

Considering the Thought Processes needed to harm you, you know it is the closet. An assault from behind the sofa will necessitate someone moving to look over or around it and pointing a gun at you (Locating and Reacting) before Attacking. But in the darkened confines of the closet, an unseen offender may already have Located you and Reacted (positioned himself) to shoot through the opening. If so, he has completed two-thirds of the Thought Processes needed to hurt you. All he has left to do, unless he is defended against immediately, is to fire. Your first act should be to remove yourself from the line of fire from the closet or seek cover that protects you from it. Before allowing yourself to become exposed to that location again, you must be certain it is safe. Remember: the unknown hazard is often the hazard that kills. This was vividly illustrated late one night when a veteran patrolman, responding to a prowler call, approached a man carrying a white canvas laundry bag outside a New Jersey apartment house. The officer asked about the bag’s contents, and the suspect reached inside it. At that instant, a primary Area of Responsibility (the man’s hand) disappeared from the officer’s view. Inside the bag, unknown to the officer, the suspect gripped a 12 ga. sawed-off shotgun. He fired through the canvas‘and killed the officer. Because the threat was a hidden one, the officer had no chance to Identify it or Control it to defend himself. Nothing interfered with the assailant’s Thought Processes, however. He was able to Locate the officer, React and Attack with ease. ' In some cases, knowledge about Thought Processes may help you escape from situations that seem to be no-win. One example is when you are held at close quarters at gunpoint. The circumstances then cause the Thought Processes that you and the suspect normally have to be switched. If you are close enough to attempt a disarming, you now will know in advance when you are going to move and you will have the minimum number of Processes to go through to complete your Control 72

of him. On the other hand, he will be stuck with the extra Process of Identifying your aggressive action, and he will experience the lag time that comes with it. Before he can respond, you can defeat him and free

yourself, if you are skilled in a valid disarming technique. Understanding Thought Processes hopefully will help you avoid reaching the point where you have to take such desperate action to save your life. As you assess your Problem Areas and Areas of Responsibility in dealing with potential threat situations, ask yourself where, at any given moment, a would-be assailant might be on his scale of mental steps leading to Attack...and know where you are in your ability to respond.

Analyzing

a Tactic

As long as you’re on the job, you'll get a lot of advice about survival tactics. Some of what you hear may indeed prove life-saving. But a lot, though well-intentioned, is really life-threatening. The wrong tactic tried at the wrong time in the wrong situation can leave you on the wrong end of a violent encounter. An important part of your Tactical Thinking is your ability to analyze what you hear and read about and what you invent on your own, to be certain it can work for you when you need it. It’s a given that your tactics should be simple and direct. The stress of a high-risk situation dictates that the demands on both your memory and your physical performance be kept as minimal as possible. Beyond that, any tactic, whether it’s a physical defense technique or a deployment strategy, should be tested against four criteria:

1. Can you really conduct the move under stress: Some officers may be able to employ tactics that you cannot, because of differences in their physical strength and agility, mental and emotional makeup, memories, equipment, administrative policies, state laws, experience, amount of practice, and so on. We all have individual capabilities and, as the

This officer is attempting to control protestors. But under stress, he chose an inappropriate control option without understanding his limitations. Could he really shoot in this situation?

preeminent police philosopher, Dirty Harry, has observed: “A good man always knows his limitations.” If you don’t, you may think you can pull off a tactical maneuver which, when your life is on the line, you can’t. On the other hand, underestimating your abilities can be dangerous, too. It you assume, without diligent practice attempts, that you can’t perform a tactic that is new and requires training, you are denying yourself a tool that might someday help you gain a vital edge over a high-risk offender. Even if you personally cannot accomplish a given tactic, that does not necessarily mean you can’t gain the benefits of it. Perhaps your partner has capabilities that fill in some of your weak spots and vice versa. By working together and understanding your individual and joint range of talents you can strengthen your tactical approach as a team. On the other hand, if a tactic or technique depends on a partner doing it with you and you are paired with someone who can’t—or won’t—perform as needed, the tactic is obviously of much less value to you. Besides knowing your capabilities and motivation, you need to consider those of your fellow officers, too. Keep in mind that “knowing” a tactic, in the sense of having seen or heard about it and “learned” it intellectually, is not necessarily the same as being able to actually do it. And being able to do it in a nonthreatening training environment is not the same as being able to perform it under high stress. Likewise, being able to do it at one point in your career does not necessarily mean it is within your capability forever. Continual practice in the forms of realistic role-playing and mental rehearsal is ESSENTIAL to your maintaining control over the tactics and techniques you want to use to control others. The more familiar you are with a tactic, the more relaxed you will be when using it, and this will add to your ability to do it. With thousands of repetitions, it will become so embedded in your memory that you will call on it reflexively, without conscious thought. But if a tactic is not one you are willing to practice regularly, then it is not one you can really count among your options.

2. Does the tactic take into account probable responses: Officers and suspects alike have certain “natural” reactions to stimuli that you must allow for in developing successful street control. If a certain tactic requires that you fall face down on the ground, for example, it must presuppose that you will move to shield your face as you fall, an instinctive reaction dictated by nature to protect the eyes. If this movement is not accommodated for in the successful application of the tactic, then the maneuver won’t work when you try to use it in the field. Similarly, if you’re approaching a suspect on foot from behind and he may be armed, his probable reaction should be part of your tactical decision about where best to stand or walk. Most people who are right handed (which is the vast majority) will turn to their right to attack, if standing. In doing so, they then hit what they’re shooting at about 85% of the time, according to tests. This compares to only 15% hits if they go against the “natural” reaction and spin around to the left. You can’t reduce your risk to zero, but you can improve your odds, then, by keeping to a suspect’s left rear, in lieu of a good cover position. A tactic that would not accommodate this probable response should be carefully questioned. Studying people and role-playing reactions will help you identify other probable responses that are important to keep in mind for tactical analysis. Thought Processes are included in probable responses. Tactics like shining light into a subject’s rear view mirrors on a nighttime vehicle

74

stop, approaching buildings with invisible deployment, proning out suspects for searching to slow their mobility are all tactics that meet the test because they acknowledge a would-be attacker’s Thought Processes and influence them to your advantage. Tactics that ignore or contradict Thought Processes have serious—possibly fatal—flaws. 3. Does the tactic, once executed, control the offender’s movements? Where physical techniques are concerned, this involves considerations like body mechanics...the element of surprise...positioning superiority. ..and a tactic’s defeatability, all of which must be weighted in your favor for a maneuver to be desirable. Thus, grabbing a suspect by the shoulder, which is predictable and gives you no leverage against him, is not an effective means of control, whereas a proper wrist lock that may catch him off-guard and from which he cannot wrench free may be. Officers often fail to understand that once you touch an individual, you must control him. If he has not already Located you, he now has an excellent idea just where you are, and if he is big, fast, drugged beyond the point of pain compliance or skilled in the martial arts, he’s in an excellent position to control you—and hurt you badly—unless you control him first. Tactics that offer control for some officers may not do so for others. You'll have much greater success with some techniques if you’re tall and brawny and your suspect 1s smaller than if you’re short and slightly built, up against a bigger, stronger suspect. The body mechanics of trying to maintain an arm-bar hold on some suspects, for example, may work more for the suspect’s defeating control than for you achieving it, unless your strength and stature give you clear superiority. Physical tactics must be evaluated, not in terms of what works for most officers or some officers, but for what works for YOU. The tactics that are good for you are the good tactics. Where deployment strategy is concerned, your tactics may not always immediately control a suspect physically. But they should always be designed to Jimit his ability to hurt you, and they should contribute to your gaining an advantage over him that ultimately will lead to control. In that context, maneuvers that give you a high-ground advantage, better cover and concealment than he has or improved time and distance for

dealing with him are control-oriented measures that foster your positioning superiority.

4. Does the tactic allow for a follow-through: A good tactic helps you finish what you start. Yet so much of what officers are taught ends like a freeze frame in the middle of the action. Some gun-retention techniques, for example, show you how to keep your gun in your holster, but nothing beyond that. Unless the suspect meekly says, “Okay, you’ve retained your gun, so I surrender,” what do you do after you’ve protected your weapon? With some techniques, you’re more vulnerable to physical attack after retention than you were before, because of the position you end up in in relation to your attacker. Tactics should culminate in control. If more than one step is required, each should flow smoothly to the next without causing you to

lose ground. A good deployment strategy for high-risk vehicle stops, for example, helps you get the offender car stopped safely, but it also guides you in getting the suspects out of the car and into your custody. If your tactics are only half measures and lack follow through, they’l] create new problems for you instead of helping you move the incident closer to a

favorable conclusion. The more tactics you can successfully test against these criteria and 75

integrate into your street performance, the better equipped you'll be for surviving high-risk situations. If you have only a small “trick bag” of tactics, you are adding to your limitations. If a tactic you’re depending on does not work, or you’re injured and can’t perform it, or the situation is such that it simply is not the most appropriate option, you may be in serious trouble if you don’t have other options to call upon. With multiple choices and the versatility to use them, your ability to apply the best tactics to the street problems you face is dramatically enhanced. One purpose of this book is to broaden your options, to introduce you to tactical skills that you may not previously have heard of or known how to master. With the principles of mental conditioning and Tactical Thinking in mind, let’s look now at specific threat situations and explore valid techniques that can help you control them.

An off-duty sergeant is confronted by a man wielding two bottles. Here all four of the evaluation criteria for the use of a tactic are working toward a successful response. The sergeant’s analysis of his tactical skills told him he could control this offender without resorting to deadly force. Notice the expression of confidence on the sergeant’s face.

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One of the most widely taught control and arrest tactics is the wall position. It has been adapted for searching and handcuffing against a car for years. But how frequently does an accepted tactic like this one get taken for granted as being highly effective. As you can see, it not only can be defeated, it can lead to your being easily disarmed (bottom right photo). Offenders in prison practice the very same arrest defeat. Now the question for you becomes this: What tactical option do you know that will work better for you in this situation?

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| Li| TACTICAL lef =

:

Building se arches offer c 1 maze of variables both for you...and the offender.

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BUILDING SEARCHES In any high-risk situation, there are two aspects of your tactical competence: 1. the physical mechanics of the movements you make, and much more important,

2. the decision making (Tactical Thinking) that initiates them.

Where survival often goes on-line is when an officer doesn’t know how to do the former and/or does the latter too late...or not at all. In searching a building for one or more suspects who may be primed to attack you, you’d better have both aspects down pat—plus the timing to make them effective. For a building search can be one of the toughest assignments in law enforcement. Your greatest hazard always is the ability of the suspect(s) to hide and lie in wait for you in an almost limitless number of places. Within the maze of stairways, hallways, doorways, furnishings, fixtures, closets, attics, basements, false ceilings, nooks, crannies and other lairs of concealment in a building, the natural odds overwhelmingly favor the hunted over the hunter. Yet despite the infinite variables presented by the commercial and residential buildings on your beat, you can be tactical in approaching any of them. True, there is no “standard” building. But there are standard movements that can be adapted to the multitude of architectural configurations you encounter. Indeed, there are few assignments on which the principles of Tactical Thinking and the movements that support them can be better applied. Whether you're a special-weapons team member handling a known emergency or a street officer responding to your third breaking-andentering call of your shift, you’ll need to make some of the same movements and employ similar thinking. The difference is that a special weapons team may take four hours to negotiate an area that you as a patrol officer will move through in 15 minutes. In a very real sense, the patrol function is harder. The special weapons team knows a threat exists and often exactly where it could emanate from. Patrol officers may or may not be pursuing an actual danger... probably won’t know its exact location...and yet are expected to do the job faster, while still using caution and tactical savvy. You should never feel completely safe searching any building. If you do, you’re tempting fate with complacency, and complacency is fate’s 8]

favorite bait. Always think attack, expect attack. And then base your actions on tactics that will discourage or counter it. Keep in mind that no tactical concept is perfect. Each involves a trade-off—sacrificing something to gain something else. When facing choices, take the best that a given tactic offers, weigh it against the worst, and see where the advantage lies—with you or with your adversary. Think your choices through. What seems obvious is not always so. For example, some officers believe that to minimize the problem of being silhouetted in hallways they should prone out or low-crawl through them. They are so focused on the silhouette threat that they are ignoring a far greater menace that this tactic creates, particularly on concrete and other hard surfaces: ricochet fire. In sound Tactical Thinking, you don’t decrease yourself as a target (from silhouetting) by increasing yourself as a target (from ricochet fire). If a procedure won’t work predominantly in your favor, then you need to keep searching for something better. In your evaluation, however: DO NOT fall victim to “what-if paralysis.” With all the variables buildings present, you can conjecture about extraordinary attack situations forever. But trying to adjust good tactics to fit every potentiality will only weaken them. Accept that you cannot achieve total immunity from risk, yet still employ the proven techniques that will guard you from the most risk. DO remain flexible. Remember: rigidity kills. As you approach each new problem on your search, assess the threat potential it presents and select the tactical techniques that buy you the greatest safety in that location at that time. Let the building tell you what to do. It’s design should shape your strategy. You can’t just memorize arbitrary rules. You have to think about the situation you’re moving into, even if your evaluation takes only a split second. And you have to continue your evaluation AFTER you're inside. As you progress, you may encounter things there that will necessitate changing your plans completely, on the spot.

Enter...or

Wait?

Any time you enter a building that may be offender-occupied, you increase your risk of injury. So if there is any other reasonable option, DO NOT GOIN. Especially wait outside if you have good evidence that one or more suspects actually are inside. You may get more help, including a K-9, to locate, isolate and control the suspect(s) as time passes. If you set up an “invisible perimeter” around the place, they may come out on their own and unwittingly run into your trap. Or they may be talked out or bluffed out (as with threats to “send in the dogs” if they don’t surrender). One search team, after threatening to use tear gas, discharged a fire extinguisher through the transom of a room where a suspect was hiding. Thinking he was being subjected to chemical agents, he quickly emerged. Some assignments—raids, serving warrants, hunting for welfare cheats—presume your going in. But even when you feel forced to enter and/or search, ALWAYS EVALUATE WHETHER YOU ARE GOING TOO FAR. No call is really important enough to justify your plunging 82

into a building and then discovering that you have overextended yourself into a no-win situation. And just because you’ve committed yourself to one step in a building search does not necessarily mean you have to commit to the next.

nsequences of premature entry. Seeing a suspect just inside door, officer starts in after him ater). He shoots, and officer runs from steps, shot in head (right).

Before automatically launching a search, ask yourself: 1. Do I have enough backup: A minimum of two officers are required to clear most buildings with any degree of safety. A large area or complicated structural design will likely require more. A department store or underground garage, for instance, can never be searched safely by just two officers. In any large building, will you be able to maintain communication with your fellow officers? Size aside, some experts say you need three officers for every suspect believed to be inside. However, it can be just as dangerous to get too many searchers involved as too few, because of problems with cross fire, identity, tracking and coordination. For most buildings, five, working together as a team, is probably the maximum that’s feasible. NEVER TRY TO SEARCH A BUILDING ALONE. Any structure that has to be entered to be adequately cleared offers far too many Problem Areas and Areas of Responsibility for one officer to control. If there turn out to be multiple suspects scattered in different parts of the building, how are you going to control them |perhaps with only one set of

handcuffs for five offenders) even if you do find them? Early one winter morning, four officers responded to a silent alarm at a Michigan party shop and saw a shadowy figure moving inside. A 83

patrolman volunteered to climb through a broken window and investigate. He quickly captured and handcuffed a teen-age burglar, then, still without backup inside, continued searching for others. Unable to control doorways properly by himself, he did the best he could. But when he opened a rest room door, an intruder hiding inside blasted him witha .38. The bullet penetrated the officer’s side between the panels of his vest and struck his heart. Scarcely a year later, a sergeant on the same department repeated essentially the same blunder—overextension. While children were filing past to school, he entered a video arcade being burglarized by two suspects. Searching without support, he was overpowered and disarmed, then shot in the back of the head witha .357 Magnum while being marched down a rear hallway. 2. Do I have the right equipment: The type of building involved will largely determine what’s proper. A shotgun may be appropriate if you’re searching a warehouse, but could be a hindrance in most residences, unless the weapon has a pistol grip or folding stock. It’s cumbersome while searching or handcuffing, and is vulnerable to disarming in close quarters. Between you and a partner, only one of you at most should carry a shotgun. Similarly, a baton can add noise and awkwardness in tight places, although where space is ample it can come in handy as a tool for propping open doors.

A side-handle baton is used as a wedge between the door and frame to hold door completely open for other entry members. (Above) A nail driven through a wooden wedge so the nail tip protrudes can also be useful. Under pressure from the door, the wedge is made secure.

Door wedges (preferably rubber to hold better on slick floors, but possibly wood cut to different thicknesses from scrap) and a wad of nylon cord for tying door knobs can be tucked in pockets. Or you can carry them in a “search bag” that might also include bungee cords, a mirror or two, distractors, gas grenades, a gas mask, extra handcuffs, a listening device for detecting human sounds through walls, a spare flashlight bulb 84

and other aids for securing rooms or suspects. If you’re taking a portable with you, wear an ear plug to eliminate radio noise. Some officers also insert ear plug hearing protectors, so if a shot is fired they will not experience any momentary deafness. One of the biggest mistakes officers make is going in with an inadequate light source—or none at all. An Indiana patrolman searching a house known to be occupied by an armed suspect ended up trying to clear a dark basement by lighting a piece of paper. He was lucky enough only to be shot in the hand. A high-intensity flashlight throwing out at least 20,000 candlepower is essential on any search. On raids, this blinding beam (not the flashlight handle!) can make an effective stunning device as well as a valuable search aid. Even during daylight hours there’ll inevitably be closets, storerooms, attics, basements or other interior spaces you can’t properly clear of darkness or shadows with less than a high-intensity light. A low-powered light can only aid your adversary; it will glow enough to target you when you hold it, but may not illuminate your adversary. A Maryland officer shined his feeble “regulation” flashlight directly on a suspect lying atop some overhead pipes in a basement, but the weak beam failed to distinguish his human form sharply enough for the officer to detect. The officer was surprised at not finding the man there because that was exactly where he’d expected him to hide. Then when he turned to search elsewhere, he discovered that his poor light had betrayed him. The suspect attacked from the very spot the weak flashlight had just “cleared.” As backup to your flashlight, consider carrying a penlight. This can provide an emergency light source in case your main bulb burns out and may also be appropriate for finding switches in light panels where a strong light is unnecessary. If you don’t have the equipment you need, another source may. When deputies from an Eastern department assembled one night outside a rural home where a bank robber had possibly holed up, they discovered that their 500,000-candlepower power pack was kaput. Rather than attempt such a high-risk search with just flashlights, they called the nearest fire department and borrowed its high-intensity power pack. 3. Am I free of civilian interference In an Eastern county, an officer was properly waiting for backup and a K-9 outside a furniture warehouse that had been broken into when the manager showed up. Dressed in a tuxedo, he was impatient to get to a banquet and threatened to enter the building alone unless the officer searched it immediately. Just then an unarmed guard from an alarm company arrived and offered to accompany the officer inside. Under the manager’s mounting harangue, the

officer gave in. All three went in. All three were shot to death by two burglars hiding inside.

STEADFASTLY RESIST REQUESTS FROM CIVILIANS TO SaeLP” YOU SEARCH, AS WELL AS PRESSURE FROM THEM TO MAKE ENTRY WHEN YOU FEEL IT’S INADVISABLE. Their lack of

training and tactical sophistication can boomerang against you. This was the case with a Midwestern trooper who permitted a tenant to help him search an apartment building. The civilian spotted two burglars hiding on a terrace and rapped on a window to “scare” them. In their

flight, they gunned down the trooper who happened to be in the path of their escape. Early on, innocent civilians associated with the building should be relocated to a safe place, such as a neighbor’s home or perhaps your patrol car, out of the kill zone and beyond the point where they might be taken 85

hostage. If they insist upon entering the building and searching it themselves, warn them of the danger to their safety and discourage that action. If they still insist, advise them: “This building is the scene of an on-going criminal investigation and is off-limits to all civilians. Please wait until it has been secured.” If they ignore your lawful order not to enter, you technically can arrest them for failing to obey. Better to deal with potential complaints about that than to be put on the spot later for not having restrained them, if they do go inside and get injured or killed. Above all, do NOT give in to pressure or demands and go in with them. If you and other officers choose to make entry yourselves, instruct concerned civilians not to come in after you at any point. Two officers in the Baltimore area kicked open a bedroom door while checking a house after a burglary. The female victim had followed them in and was waiting in the living room. She heard the door slam against the wall and screamed, thinking it was the burglar making noise. The officers spun around, assuming she was being attacked...and exposed their backs to the uncleared bedroom. Fortunately, the burglar had fled before the search began, or the woman’s next screams might have been over the distracted officers being shot from behind. 4. What intelligence is available: Someone familiar with the building may be able quickly to sketch its floor plan, highlighting any unusual features or fixtures. On a drug raid, you’ll want to know in advance where the toilets are, because that’s where the suspects will go. In apartment complexes, hotels and motels, and some residential subdivisions, you may get permission to view other premises nearby with the same layout as those you’re considering searching. You may also be able to find out where light switches are and what they turn on...and where are the most likely hiding places.

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protection reinforced within this apartment. The location prior to being raided was a major drug operation in the East. 86

The kind of building it is may affect your entry decision. Is it a PCP lab, where you may become dangerously contaminated by touching things barehanded and where the risk of explosion is high? A biker clubhouse, which may have hard-to-penetrate fortifications? A jewelry store, which typically will be hit by a large group of professionals, who may still be inside? A warehouse, stacked with munitions? Try to learn the exact spots where any combustible or hazardous materials are stored inside. Materials in some environments present fatal risks in case of a gunfight. With airborne particles of grain or flour inside a mill, for instance, gunfire can touch off a major explosion. Certain building types—biker hangouts, the headquarters or “safe houses” of extremist groups, the homes of emotionally disturbed subjects, among others—may be mined with booby traps. An electrician wanted in Wyoming for contempt of court in connection with a tax case rigged his house with 19 destructive devices made of shotgun shells, smokeless powder and shot pellets, just waiting for federal agents to enter and search for him. The devices could have been tripped by hidden wires. Other locations have been booby trapped with light bulbs filled with gunpowder and buckshot. These explode when you flip the switch to light a room. Rattlesnakes were hidden in boxes and drawers inside a biker clubhouse in Florida. Elsewhere, an officer searching a tenement where radicals allegedly had stockpiled weapons leaped through a doorway—and felt the floor give way when he landed. Some boards had been cut to collapse while others popped up to impale his groin with four 6-inch nails. Ordinary items, such as plastic soft drink bottles, clothes pins, mouse traps, shoe boxes, cigaret packs, beer cans, tape recorder cassettes, brief cases, etc., can be transformed into deadly weapons that are rarely obvious or easily avoided. The booby trap risk is highest when a suspect has had access to a location for some time and is anticipating an eventual confrontation with law enforcement. When you’re dealing with a location that may have been “worked on,” you’re safest to back off and let specialized experts handle it. Intelligence gathering may also give you a fix on the probable number of suspects inside, their location and their state of mind. Your decision about entering a school that has likely been broken into by unarmed juvenile vandals will probably be much different than about entering a small trailer house occupied by a drunk or disturbed individual who's firing shots. Amazingly, however, in-service training exercises reveal that many experienced officers approach a building cautiously— but then make entry immediately when they hear shots fired inside. Instead of backing off, taking cover and using an option like chemical agents, they burst right into the kill zone, as if learning that there’s a suspect inside prepared to shoot them is a signal for making entry! This irrational compulsion to enter can apply to rooms as well as buildings. On a major northern department, an officer searching a house where a subject had been found shot in the living room came to a dimly lighted bedroom. Inside, he saw a man sitting in a chair, holding a gun in his lap. The officer’s reaction was to vault into the doorway in a “classic combat shooting stance.” When he shouted, “Freeze!” and the gunman didn’t move, the officer then holstered his weapon and walked up to the chair.

Only when he got within touching distance did he discover that the subject—luckily—was dead. If the presence of firearms isn’t obvious, ask about them, including any kept in desks or personal areas. You'll want to know if your risk of being attacked has been increased by the availability of weapons inside 87

the building—and how your firepower stacks up against what's in there. Also inquire where valuables are kept. A suspect may have been near

those sites when forced to hide. And find out if any dogs are in the place and whether they can be called out before you go in. Good searching requires the application of Focus, and unnecessary diversions like a dog attack that may separate your Focus are unnecessary dangers. 5. Is there a safe point of entry? If you can’t even get into the place without incurring high risk, that alone may abort your search. With most buildings, doors and windows are your only options. A door almost always is preferred. Ideally, you want one on the side of the building with the least number of windows, to reduce your chances of being seen. Also try for one as far as possible from the suspect’s apparent point of entry. He may anticipate your entering where he did, plus he’ll likely leave the same way he came in and he may be heading toward his exit as you start in. Even if you have to use a door the suspect used, though, it’l] likely be safer than a window. Windows slow, silhouette and cramp you...rob you of movement that’s coordinated with other officers... make you almost impossible to cover...and require contortions that keep you from covering yourself.

Avoid windows as a point of entry, especially a window this narrow. Tactical officers search for a suspect who wounded an officer the day before. Who is most vulnerable here?

Securing a safe entry point may take time...time to get a key toa

door or find one whose security you can breach (back doors usually are

less secured by locks)... time to set up a distraction at the opposite end of

the building to divert the suspect at the moment you make entry. Cherish 88

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Here three officers are involved in the response. As Officers 1 and 2 move into position with the front door as their point of entry, they pass below windows and avoid crossfires. Officer 3 covers the rear of the house and stays back to avoid detection. Each officer can control designated Areas of Responsibility.

One important principle in building entries is to initially deploy to avoid detection (see art above). In this incident, two of the three officers could be detected by someone in the house because of either weapon or body positioning. 89

time, With information, equipment, manpower and tactics, it should be the bedrock of your search. Unless you are conducting a raid, you and all other officers should consider entering only through one place, to reduce the risk of cross fire. Officers staying outside, as well as those going in, should know this point of entry, and neither entry nor exit should be made except through there.

A young plainclothesman gave chase to two during the search of a “dope flat.” When they started to climb through after them—and was who logically assumed he was a third fleeing

suspects he flushed out leaped out a window, he shot by an officer outside felon. Consider more than just your risks from the suspect in assessing the safety of an entry point. A Michigan sergeant who was preparing to make entry through the back door of a dwelling was injured when decayed wooden steps on the back porch collapsed under him. As you approach a building that may require penetration, you can always come up with reasons why you should go in. With this checklist, play devil’s advocate and argue why you shouldn’t. You may wisely be persuaded not to. As you make your evaluation about entering, stay behind cover. A Tennessee patrolman was shot in the head and killed with a single round from a .30-30 rifle while standing on the sidewalk in front of a home he and other officers were considering entering. A gunfight had been reported in a back room, out of sight of their deliberations. But unknown to the officers, the suspect had come outside and hidden himself where he could watch—and attack—them before they arrived. If you do decide to enter, your penetration must be as tactically sound as any subsequent movement inside. Your search moves begin at the outer wall of the structure. In your mind, the suspect should always be waiting just on the other side. Always expect the unexpected. If someone’s in there, you’re now in his territory.

Principles

of Movement

Nothing is more important to your surviving building searches than the principles of movement that can minimize your risk. They can help you construct a systematic plan of action rather than relying just on random movement. Yet, ironically, in the searches you conduct you often will not be able to apply many—sometimes even most—of these tactical gospels because of the constraints of manpower, the impulses of human nature or the realities of architectural design. Think of these principles, then, as you do the moral principles of your personal life: appreciate their value, try to adhere to them as often as you can and understand that there will be times when you have to compromise them because of forces you cannot control. At least be aware when you are violating them...and why. Not all authorities agree on all these fundamentals. With these, as with other tactics, there tend to be regional and individual preferences. You will need to weigh the pros and cons and, based on your experience, ability and role-playing, choose what seems most likely to work best for

you and your fellow officers in your circumstances. During any search, key considerations to keep in mind include: Verbal challenge. While you want your actual entry to be as discreet

as possible, sometime before you move to enter address the suspect(s) 90

who may be inside. From behind cover, yell something like: “Police! You inside... make your presence known and come out. Walk out backwards...with your hands up. If you do not come out NOW, you will be considered armed and dangerous. YOU MAY BE SHOT!” This may evoke

a voluntary surrender...or it may prevent a tragedy. Even

if your warning

fails to prompt

an innocent

party or a

harmless suspect to emerge, if you do end up shooting an unarmed occupant inadvertently, you will be in a stronger legal and disciplinary position having issued a challenge before entering, making clear the risks to anyone who stays inside. C.Y.A.: challenge your area... cover your ass. That’s precisely what two officers in Illinois did before entering a suburban home that neighbors believed was being burglarized. Inside, a shadowy figure suddenly banged open a basement door, surprised an officer standing nearby and was shot. The victim turned out to be an 18-year-old who lived there. He’d forgotten his key and had crawled through a window to get inside. The officers’ repeated warnings before entering, however, contributed to their being cleared of criminal wrongdoing and departmental violations in the investigation that followed. Remember, of course, that not everyone who claims to have a legitimate connection with a building necessarily does. When two Virginia officers approached a house on a burglary call, a teen-ager inside raised the window as if he lived there and indignantly demanded to know, “What’s going on out there?” He proved to be an offender; his partner was found hiding under a bed. Search pattern. It’s said about building searches that the higher you enter, the better; “search from the top down.” For some exquisitely choreographed special-weapons operations, that may be valid. But for the average officer facing a search that may or may not produce an armed confrontation, how practical is it? Will you have a helicopter or fire department snorkel to hoist you above ground level? Responding to a possible breaking-and-entering at the average home, would you climb up a rain spout to break through the roof... or rappel down to crash through an upper bedroom window? In truth, you’d probably have to go up stairways to reach the top, so to some degree at least you’d have to search up in order to start searching down. Even if you could magically appear on the top floor, the supposed

“high-ground advantage” of searching down tends to be more questionable on patrol assignments than in the military. Unable to fire ahead or toss hand grenades to clear a path, coming down most stairways is one of the highest-risk aspects of searching, because of your limited visibility compared to what someone hiding below can see of you and because of the physical difficulties of returning effective fire. That’s why searching basements is so justifiably scary to most officers. You can easily be targeted and assaulted before you even perceive the threat, simply because your eyes are not at the ends of your toes. When you have no fix on the suspect’s location (or even whether he’s in there), you’re generally safer tactically to work your way up. In a typical house, search the first floor first. Then if manpower permits, leave an officer or officers behind to secure access points to the upstairs and basement while you and the rest of the search party move up and search the upper floor(s) and attic. The basement is searched last. Do not attempt searching more than one floor at a time. As you move up or down stairways, along hallways and through rooms, keep your back toward but slightly away from the wall. Although

offenders may be able to shoot through some walls, a wall generally will ek

be the closest thing to cover available for your backside. Without your back exposed, you'll feel more comfortable concentrating on the Areas of Responsibility toward which you are advancing. Your potential threat locations are ahead of you, and you are constructed physically to do your best fighting forward. If you feel the need to look in the opposite direction, you can do so easily with a slight glance toward your trailing shoulder instead of having to turn your head fully as you would if you were moving perpendicular to the wall. If you find yourself in a hallway or a room where you feel your back isn’t covered, reevaluate. Chances are high that you have failed to do something earlier that you should have. Take care not to rub against walls as you advance or to crash into them when you run from one spot to another. Not only may the noise be a give-away but in some positions against hard surfaces you may also be exposing yourself to the risks of ricochet fire. Moving, think continually about your cover and the suspect's field of view. In other words, could the offender be hidden in a spot from which he could see—and more important, shoot—you where you are now or where you intend to move?

Field of view. Ideally you should NEVER move into an adversary’s potential field of view that you personally cannot cover; that is, where you could not readily meet force with force. As a tactical minimum, NEVER enter a field of view that at least your partner cannot cover.

The officer killed in this room search violated both principles:

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As he moved out from the doorway, his back was toward the suspect’s hiding place in a part of the room that had not been searched. Neither he nor his partner was in position to detect the suspect’s presence or to defend the officer once he entered the offender’s field of view. He was shot in the back without ever realizing he had made himself an easy victim. Had he moved around the room to his left upon entering, with his back to the wall, conscious of possible hiding places and what might be seen from them, he would have been in a much stronger position to anticipate the attack and either thwart or respond to it. Any movement that does not permit you to face the danger area and maintain target acquisition while moving is likely to be a bad movement technique. Light control. One means of expanding your own field of view and diminishing the suspect’s is through the manipulation of light in darkened locations. Use it for you and your partners, against the subject you’re searching for. Where you have varied or controllable lighting, you want if possible to move from dark areas into lighted ones, never the reverse. Also avoid searching in the dark unless you have extensive training and experience with a special-weapons team. Darkness tends to disorient most people, and because you can’t effectively clear an area when it’s dark, you won’t be able to see the potential hazards you face. Lighting up a room places a suspect at a tactical disadvantage. It shows you clearly where your potential threat locations are...it may deprive him of concealment by illuminating him, silhouetting him or causing him to cast a shadow... and it may temporarily affect his vision if his eyes have grown accustomed to the dark. Light switches for most rooms are about 48 inches off the floor (chest height), but don’t linger there once you’ve flipped one on. The suspect may know the switch location, too. Where you have light panels to work with, as you might in a warehouse, try to light the building up from the rear forward. You may be able to expose the suspect while you are still concealed in darkness.

You may be able to position your patrol car so that its headlights shine into the area. After the spotlight is aimed at the entrance, quickly flank out to cover where an adversary will not expect you to be located. 93

Fight the temptation to turn room lights on if you have to move without tactical soundness in order to do it. There are undoubtedly other light sources. A high-intensity beam bounced off the ceiling from behind a doorway may do the trick. This can be especially effective in illuminat-

ing someone hiding behind a shower curtain, for example. Your flashlight can even be made to “bend” around corners. Just shine your light into a convex mirror with about a 3-inch surface diameter that you hold in your hand or have attached to a small wooden paddle or a piece of flexible conduit. In using your flashlight and other lighting sources, your principal danger will be silhouetting yourself. In addition to obvious sources of back-lighting, remember as you move down a lighted hallway, for instance, that a suspect hiding in a darkened room may be able to see your feet silhouetted under the door and learn your location. When light is behind you and you are nearing a corner, your shadow will be cast ahead and may give away your presence prematurely. In their search bags, some officers carry a water pistol that can be used to squirt on naked hallway light bulbs to break them. In searching, two types of silhouetting may present risks: primary silhouettes, such as windows, and secondary silhouettes, areas of wall and floor where light coming through a window is cast. You may be able to move under primary silhouettes, but this may prove impossible with secondary ones because of the angle and extent of the light splash. Here speed is probably your best ally: don’t creep through any silhouette. If you come into an area that is more dimly lit than one you've just left (like coming indoors in daytime), blink your eyes several times. This will stimulate your night vision. Also, avoid searching while wearing glasses with photograde lenses. The lens density changes too slowly for your eyes to adjust to changes in light level as fast as you need to. Amber lensed shooting glasses, however, will help your eyes gather light in lowlight level. Relative positioning. Regardless of the illumination you create, before you pass any corner or enter any doorway, you want to see what (or who) might be waiting on the other side. One option is to use a mirror. Another surveillance move is the quick peek technique. Done fast enough and with the proper limited exposure, a lurking suspect may not even detect this move. You don’t need to poke your head out far enough to see with both eyes; one will do the job. Just as you remain conscious of where you are relative to where the suspect might be, also stay aware of your position relative to that of your partner(s). Getting into each other’s cross fire is a major risk, especially in

close quarters and where high stress tends to keep you engrossed in the searching process. Indeed, on many searches your biggest threat is likely to be the officer with you. Sometimes cross fire can be avoided by adjusting your relative heights, getting low while your partner remains

upright, so if he is forced to fire at a suspect beyond you his bullets will go over your head. Your partner should always tell you (“Stop!”) when you are about to cross his line of fire and vice versa. Try then to adjust your positions. At times, though, you may have to accept that, at least for a

split second, either you or your partner will not be able to fire because of the risk of hitting the other. Just be certain you are not both in this

position simultaneously, so that neither of you can shoot. Avoid the bunching effect, the strong tendency to cluster together in the illusion of safety from closeness as you prepave for entry, move or 94

search. The closer together you are, the easier it will be for a suspect to shoot both of you with just a fractional shift in his aim. Plus, you are dangerous to each other. Five officers sent to deal with a drunk who was threatening suicide were clustered together on the subject’s front porch when he suddenly appeared in the doorway with a rifle. Officers spun out and away from the doorway, all drawing their service revolvers and firing at the same time. One officer was shot to death, taking close-quarters rounds from three of his colleagues.

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Another consideration in relative positioning is the fact that an offender’s feet usually stick out farther than the rest of his body. If you glance down as you peek, you might see him before he can see you. (below) The bunching of officers can create an easy target for an offender who needs to concentrate his assault in only one area to jeopardize multiple officers.

Tactical separation buys you time for proper reaction. In Chicago, two officers were searching a wholesale grocery warehouse after an alarm when one of them was overwhelmed and disarmed by four

gunmen. His partner was far enough behind that he could dive for cover

behind a van. When the robbers fired at both officers, the protected partner was able to return fire, providing some protection for himself and the first officer until the assailants finally fled. However, you don’t want your distance apart to reach the point where you cannot keep in visual contact. For example, don’t search by having everyone on your team go to separate rooms. Again, with only momentary exceptions in the most extreme circumstances, you should be able to see your partner and all other officers in your search party at all times. Not being able to see each other invites shooting each other... or not being able to warn one another of danger. Strive for the principle of triangulation, which will promote separation, minimize cross fire and bunching and maximize the impact of your defensive fire by directing it to a central point. Think of each of the potential hiding places (Areas of Responsibility) in your field of view as being at the apex of a triangle. You and your partner ideally should be positioned so that figuratively you form the other two corners of a

triangle relative to each of these spots. If a threat presents itself, you’re

then able to direct fire at it from different angles, while the suspect will be forced to separate his firepower in order to hit both of you.

96

As you move and clear Areas of Responsibility, your partner may need to shift his relative position in order for triangulation to be maintained on new potential threat locations. If more than two officers are involved in your search, the triangulation concept still holds. During a search, only one officer should move at a time. One of you covers...one moves. Moving and shooting simultaneously is difficult if not impossible to do with accuracy. So this principle assures that someone is always maintaining control and is prepared to provide reliable

defense. Two movement styles that accommodate this principle are: 1. follow-the-leader (sometimes called “the traveling overwatch”), where one officer moves and stops, then the second positions himself in the vicinity of the first but with some separation between them. This generally is the appropriate method for maneuvering stairways, for example. The main risk here is that the second officer will stop so close behind the first that an offender can pin them down with a single line of fire. Adequate separation not only precludes this, but also prevents collisions during quick movement and assures that the two officers maintain at least slightly different fields of view. Besides being responsi-

97

ble for keeping the separation, the second officer also has rear-guard responsibilities. 2. leapfrog (also called “the bounding overwatch”), where one officer searches an area and signals when it’s secured, then the second goes past him into a new area and searches and secures it. They keep switching back and forth as the search progresses. This method is usually the faster and is appropriate when the officers have equal firepower. However, either style of movement can be tactically sound, and both can be used interchangeably during a particular search. The environment will determine which is more appropriate at any given moment. If you have a partner who insists on wandering through a search ina careless manner, you become the officer who remains stationary and covers. Don’t be lured into joining him or her in untactical movements. By staying behind you'll be able at least to call on the radio if that officer gets shot.

Gun positioning. Search with your gun in hand, even if you believe the offender has left the premises. You'll be at enough disadvantage if he does present a threat without slowing your response by having to draw. As you stand or move, however, avoid the “Starsky and Hutch Syn-

drome.” That’s holding your gun up beside your head like you see tv cops

do. In Hollywood, that’s great because it allows close-ups of an actor’s

face with his gun framed in the picture. But in real life, it’s a good way to | lose your two most important senses (sight and hearing) on at least one © side of your head if, because of stress or as a startle reaction to a sudden threat, you pull the trigger without lowering the gun. During a raid onan

98

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apartment house for traffic. warrants in Indiana, an undercover trooper trying to force a rear door accidentally discharged his .45 while holding it up. The round entered under his chin and tore through the roof of his mouth into his brain.

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(above left) Conducting searches with the barrel of a handgun pointed up is common but that doesn’t make it safe. At least one officer has died because of a handgun position like you see here. (above) A oneor two-hand hold pointed downward is far safer and reduces crossfire problems when moving. (lower left) Belt tuck technique as an example of “the third-eye concept.”

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Besides that risk, if you thrust your gun from a high position into an Isosceles or Weaver stance under intense stress, there’s a tendency for the force of your move to point the barrel toward the ground, sabotaging your aim at a distance. In one test, this loss of control caused rounds to hit the floor about 12 feet in front of the shooter. In addition, of course, having to bring the gun down increases the time necessary for target acquisition. On the other hand, if you keep your sidearm down alongside your leg, beware the tendency to let it point backward—toward your backup’s toes or toward a hard surface where it could ricochet into him. Consider moving most of the time with your gun pulled back snugly in a two-hand hold against your waist just above your belt buckle (not off to the side over your hip), with the muzzle pointed straight out or slightly down. This “belt tuck” position provides good stability, standing or squatting, even if you have to release one hand to open doors or move furniture. It’s safer for you and the officer(s) behind you...it keeps you from “leading” with your sidearm in your outstretched arm and giving away your position around corners or through doorways...and it’s less tiring than trying to sustain an Isosceles or Weaver stance all the time you're searching. Yet in case of trouble or when you're challenging a potential threat location, you can thrust your sidearm up to those postures in an instant...or fire in place from the beltline with accuracy, if you have to. If the threat comes from either side by surprise, you’re just half a turn from being on target. This position accommodates the “third-eye concept.” As your body turns toward a threat, your sidearm, lined up in the center, turns, too... it “sees” (and targets) what your eyes see. This is the essence of instinct shooting: what your gun “sees” like a third eye, it can hit. Extensive testing, especially with officers who are average-to-poor shots, indicates that the belt tuck can remarkably increase accuracy without exceptional practice or training. Shooting from the beltline, you won’t necessarily get 3-inch groups. But you will do better than if you shoot one-handed with your gun on your hip to the side. In the belt tuck position, you have good support for controlling your weapon if fatigue sets in and are better able to retain it and return fire if you get shot and go down. Thoroughness. When you’re searching for the whereabouts or existence of a suspect (in contrast to when you are moving toward an area where you are certain he is located), you’11 want to observe this principle: avoid passing any potential hiding place without first checking and securing it. Convince yourself it is safe to pass. Don’t forget to look up...and don’t dismiss any place as “too small” or “too far-fetched.” Motivated by fear of detection, human beings can squeeze into amazing spots. Officers repeatedly searched a house in Ohio over several months

looking for a man and his pregnant companion who were wanted on federal warrants. To check under a bed, they rolled a flashlight along the floor and watched to see if the beam was interrupted as it showed through onto an opposite wall. Every time the officers searched, the couple were hiding under the bed but were not detected because they pulled themselves up off the floor by hanging onto the springs. They were caught

finally when the woman’s pregnancy advanced to the point that she

couldn’t get off the floor far enough to avoid the light. Other times, suspects have been known to hide inside stereo speaker cabinets, inside dressers, in cardboard boxes, on top of elevator cars, inside the trunks of automobiles parked inside the building being searched and other

unlikely places. One rape suspect hid in a tiny hole dug through the floorboards and into the foundation of his house beneath his living room

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sofa. He eluded everyone who looked for him for eight years! Any time you check an area or even an entire building without finding anyone, keep your senses sharp by thinking, “I was unable to locate anyone” —not “There’s nobody in there.” Michigan officers “thoroughly” searched a large church one night after its alarm went off, discovered no one and left. An hour later, the alarm rang again. Suspects who'd eluded the first search had now made off with several thousand dollars worth of goods. The next time the church’s intrusion device detonated, a sergeant ordered it reset, loudly instructed his troops to withdraw—but left three officers secreted behind with shotguns. Fortyfive minutes later, four burglars confidently emerged from hiding places to ransack the church offices...but this time they were arrested. Less fortunate was a Minnesota officer who searched an office building one night after an employee working late noticed that one of the suites had been broken into. Finding no one, the officer returned to his vehicle. Meanwhile, the burglar emerged from a hiding place inside and seized the complainant as a hostage. In a bid for escape, he fired two shots into the idling patrol car and killed the officer, who was caught by surprise behind the wheel with his sidearm in its holster. Noise control. Be conscious of the noise you make. Chances are the suspect will know you are there, especially once you enter the room where he’s hiding. Your breathing alone may be enough to alert him. But don’t tip your hand unnecessarily or help him know exactly where you are. Get rid of jangling keys, rattling coins (leave them on the floor if you have to and retrieve them later), squawky radios, watches with alarms. Five officers made entry in California one night and precisely at 10 o’clock, while they were still searching, the wristwatches of all five started buzzing. In New York, an officer who was sneaking up behind an

armed robber in an apartment house stairwell was betrayed by his portable radio, which suddenly blurted out a transmission. The robber spun around...shots were fired back and forth... the officer grappled for the suspect’s gun and soon found himself tumbling down the stairway, wounded in the hand, while the offender escaped. To eliminate noise from leather soles and heels on uncarpeted floors, some officers search in stocking feet or wear tennis shoes. Getting quiet neoprene soles on your duty shoes is the minimum you should consider. You can further minimize foot noise by using the sides of your

feet. Lightly “feel” the floor by rolling forward with the whole length of the outer edge of your foot before putting any weight on it. This allows you a warning of objects in your path so you can nudge them out of the way before you crunch down on them, and also avoids creating the pounding noise usually made when a foot strikes the floor. As you move around inside, remain aware of how your environment

may betray you with noise. In video arcades, for example, some machines are designed to start “talking” when you walk in front of them.

Also consider eliminating visual “noise” like hats with protruding brims before the search begins. At least turn your hat around. Besides announcing your presence in maneuvers like the quick peek, a hat bill will restrict your peripheral vision when looking around furniture and may discourage you from looking up, an important but frequently neglected part of searching. Get rid of the “loudness” of unnecessary odors, too. The scent of cologne or perfume can give away your location as easily as being heard. You're better off saving it for after work, when its “fatal attraction” will be more to your liking. Communication. The sounds you make in communicating with 101

your partner should be soft, too. Instead of speaking out loud (a “hard” sound that can be easily pinpointed), whisper (a “soft” sound whose precise location cannot be so easily placed by a suspect who overhears it)...instead of snapping your fingers (hard sound), briskly rub your pants leg or sleeve (soft sound) to signal or attract attention. Obviously, if a threat is imminent, shout out loud, so there’s no doubt the warning will be heard. For instance, if you see that your partner is moving into a hazard area that he does not perceive, you might yell: “You! Behind the refrigerator! Don’t move! We’ve got you covered!” etc. This tells your partner where the hazard is and challenges a potential subject simultaneously.

Simple non-verbal signals can easily be communicated without losing visual control of your hazard.

The risk of not communicating was gravely illustrated during a Midwestern building search where a suspect was cornered inside a bedroom. An officer outside a window spotted him and shot, believing he had a gun. Actually, he was unarmed, but two officers about to make entry through the bedroom doorway thought the suspect was firing at them. They killed him and, in the process, shot the outside officer. He

had failed to communicate his position and they had no idea until he was hit that he was in their cross fire. As you move through the interior, keep in mind that your partner may not always hear and see what you do, even though it may seem impossible that he wouldn’t. However, be sure your communication does not require that your partner look away from his Area of Responsibility. Hand and head signals should be used ONLY if they can be seen in direct or peripheral vision while surveillance is kept on the potential threat location. In other words, you can signal safely only if the officer you’re

signaling is at least slightly behind you. If that officer is ahead of you,

though, whisper; the sound will project forward and he won’t have to turn and look. As you give a signal, don’t take your eyes off your Area of Responsi-

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bility, either. Likewise, resist the impulse to turn and look at your partner when you whisper to him or to confirm that he has followed a signal from you. When either of you receives a directive from the other, whisper

back or rub your pants leg in confirmation, then repeat that return signal when you have followed through on the command. All signals should be simple or they are certain to be forgotten or confused under stress. Develop and practice them in advance with your partner. As an Ohio trainer puts it, “When you work with a partner, you have to work with a partner.” Listening. As you search, pause frequently and just LISTEN. Listening is your safest option for determining whether a suspect is waiting in the area you're about to enter. Absorb the sound around you. Remember, the suspect is excited and under stress, too. He’s also experiencing bodily reactions that he may not be able to control, like fast, audible breathing. His bodily functions do not cease just because he is in a tactical situation. He may fart, belch, cough because his throat is dry, he

may shuffle his feet because of a muscle cramp. Often through quiet vigilance, you can gain the edge by hearing his noise. Take your time. Just because your mind is accelerating under stress does not mean you have to accelerate your movements to match. In Arizona, an officer responded to a malicious mischief call at a vacant apartment, expecting to encounter juvenile vandals. Instead, he was confronted by a crazy adult with a .357 Magnum, who opened fire as the officer made entry. The officer wisely did not pursue the suspect as he disappeared toward the far bedrooms, but instead took cover in the living room...and waited. The floor plan was such that the gunman could have tried to attack from either the front or the rear. By keeping his own noise quiet and listening, the officer could hear which way he was coming, even though the offender moved with great stealth. He tried to come from behind, but the officer was ready—and shot him dead.

Stairways One Problem Area inside buildings that’s a veritable seedbed for impatience is stairways. Officers know what death traps stairs can be, so the desire to short-cut or circumvent them is understandable. Sometimes, though, they choose alternatives that are even worse. Elevators, for

one. Ina

scenario familiar in the chronicles of police assaults, a sergeant

and three officers crowded into a single elevator to reach the floor of an

apartment building where a recent prison releasee had fired shots through a door in a squabble with his girlfriend. When the elevator whooshed open, the gunman was standing directly in front of it. He shoved a .22 revolver at the sergeant’s face and fired twice. The sergeant saved himself by diving to the floor, but still he was temporarily deafened. Worse damage was prevented only because one of the officers had drawn his gun before the door opened and was able to shoot back before the assailant got off another round. He hit the suspect in the arm, causing him to drop the gun and flee down a stairway. Because elevators offer no visibility out and no cover within and announce your arrival in advance, you're usually safer with stairs, provided you use good tactical movements. In low-rise buildings, bring

all elevators to the first floor, lock them in place so they can’t be activated by a suspect...and start climbing. A full stairway ascent in a high-rise building is not realistic (especially considering the heart attack risk for some officers). But when you have an approximate fix on your trouble location, you can at least exit the elevator a floor or two below the level you’re going to and use the stairs from there. (Be sure, however, that you can exit from the stairwell. Fire stairs in some buildings permit exit only at the ground level.) NEVER take an elevator to a floor where there’s suspicion or evidence of trouble until the hallway outside it has been cleared and secured. Even then, have your sidearm in the ready position when the doors open...so you can “open up,” too, if necessary. One recommendation for climbing stairs has been for two officers to ascend together back-to-back. One climbs forward, his sidearm ready for an assault from the top, the other walks up backward, guarding the rear. Besides being awkward to do, especially under stress, this tactic exemplifies the bunching effect and makes both officers vulnerable to a single line of fire. Even if they climb up shoulder-to-shoulder (facing opposite directions), they are still both essentially cover men, neither in a protected position. If there is an assault, they’re likely to knock each other over trying to flee or, at best, return random fire that may be hampered by the fact that both of them are moving. toh

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Bunching together makes you fair game for any hidden suspect.

Separating yourselves and dividing the Areas of Responsibility are as important on stairs as in other parts of your search. Unless you know the area is safe and your top priority is speed, you or your partner should

try to maintain a barricade cover position at the bottom of the flight while the other climbs. Once the moving officer reaches a landing, then the other can reposition to provide the best possible cover for the next section. As the ascending officer you may be exposed to some threats that your partner can’t directly cover you against, in order to maintain the integrity of his own position. So your movements need to be ones that not

only yield you the best field of view for searching but also provide you the best opportunity to defend yourself. Don’t make the most common mistake on stairways: staring at your feet as you move. You must maintain a visual on your Area of Responsibility at all times. Some officers claim you shouldn’t walk in the center of (wooden) stairs because they’re most likely to creak there. Others say you should walk in the middle in order to keep off walls and avoid ricochet shots. What’s really important about where you climb is the advantage of angle

that a given position affords you. Considering what appears to be above and to your sides, calculate the likely hiding places and climb along the portion of the stairs that will give you your earliest revealing view of those spots. Quick peeks can be made up with slight springs of your toes to survey landings or adjacent 105

(top) Notice one officer stays back as the cover officer while the advancing officer ascends, keeping his body away from touching the wall. (below) On a narrower stairway, this officer elects to advance with a lower body positioning. Bunching in either case is not a problem.

staircases. At other times, you may want to use a mirror or stay low,

almost crawling up the stairs in a sideways squat, for different perspectives. As you near the landing, consider stepping onto it on your knees, keeping at an unexpected low height until you can check the next flight up. Remember: you do not have to see the entire person to know someone is there. A tuft of hair, a protruding toe, the slightest part of a human being or his clothing is all that’s necessary. As you move, your firearm should always be ready to fire, pointed at the most probable point of attack. Use the “foot drag” method of climbing: advance quietly to the next step with one foot and pull the other up to that level, then advance again without crossing your feet over one another. This keeps you from tripping and losing balance. If you need to shoot, you can drop to the knee of your uppermost leg. In this braced “star” position, you can steady yourself better than if you are standing upright on two different levels. (The foot drag or shuffle method is often recommended for getting across rooms, too, when you have to move more or less sideways. But there you may find it too slow and awkward. Assuming you have an adequate sense of balance, you should be able to cross over your lead leg with your trailing leg as you move, for a faster, more fluid, and possibly less noisy walk. Bend your legs to keep your center of gravity low for the best stability. Some officers feel more comfortable with this cross-over climb for stairs, as well. Practice is important. Discover what works best for you and stick with it.)

The “Star position.” Notice he also uses “the third-eye concept.”

On some staircases, there will be an overhanging balcony, hallway

or landing that you have to pass under as you climb up. Here, to guard against becoming a target from behind, an option is to ascend on your back. With your head pointed toward the next landing, use your feet and seat to wiggle yourself up. This allows you to keep your firearm trained on the overhang, which will be your primary Area of Responsibility. You 107

do have limited mobility, but you are covering the suspect's potential field of view as you enter it. Your partner, staying below to avoid

bunching, covers the landing toward which you are advancing and any exposed areas to the sides. Depending on the length of the flight, he may eventually need to move up a few steps from the bottom to keep you clear of his cross fire; with this ascent, as with others, it’s important that you maintain your relative heights. If someone attacks from the overhang, you can meet force with force and/or push yourself off and bounce down the stairs out of his line of fire. A variation is to go up in a sitting position, again advancing one

stair at a time, your eyes and firearm up to cover yourself as you move.

The tactic for ascending on your back (wearing body armor) is to maintain a visual on the top of the landing as you move. This is your Area of Responsibility. Your cover officer can either stay at

the foot of the stairs for awhile (out of camera view}, or approach (right photo} to clear his Area of Responsibility.

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As you ascend and round a corner, both of you should position yourselves so you can effectively cover existing Areas of Responsibility.

Your risks descending stairs, as into a basement, can be even greater than going up. If one or both sides of the stairway are open, you are potentially exposed in a fatal funnel for the whole length of your body until your field of view clears the side wall(s) and edge of the staircase ceiling and you get a full look at what’s below. Consequently, you want to exhaust every other possible option before making a physical descent. With a basement, you may be able to turn the light on at the top of the stairs or shine your flashlight down, then have another officer check all or significant portions of it by quick peeking through its windows from outside. (At night, you can take longer looks in without being seen, provided you stay back about 18 inches from the window and are not silhouetted by an outside light.) Or consider sending a dog down first or using chemical agents. In one case, Montana officers who felt certain a potential assailant was hiding in a basement panicked him into submission by having the local fire department pump billows of foam down the stairway.

If as a last resort you decide you must descend, first try to quick peek through the open side(s) from a proned-out position on the landing. In an effort to get off the stairs as fast as possible (a commendable goal), some officers take a flying leap to the bottom, then dart to the nearest cover upon landing. This may offer an element of surprise, but the risks of ankle injury and of jumping into an unperceived threat zone are high. Where one side of the stairs is open, an option for hastening a good 109

field of view is to scoot down on your seat, like kids do. Except you keep a shotgun or your handgun pointed toward the open side as you bounce down, ready to react. The trade-off here is that this move is noisy, slow and potentially painful. An alternative is to descend in a low crouch.

Probably safest is to use a mirror on the end of an extendable wand to scope out the basement from the safety of a landing or from behind the wall of an enclosed staircase. This will allow you to see under stairs as well as into other areas.

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In descending exterior stairs consider advancing low to avoid silhouetting your body against the sky or casting shadows. At the bottom, the officer still maintains a low position.

How would you approach this downed subject? Is it safer for you to descend from a position of cover, or would it be safer for a back-up to ascend from the stairway below while you cover? It would be safer to check visually for vital signs and then descend. Coming from above, you'll be at a more difficult angle for the offender to shoot, if he’s still functional. Back-up approaching from below can be more readily targeted.

i:

Hallways Approaching any hallway during your search, you'll have one of two objectives. Either to: 1. move through it to reach a more distant area that you intend to enter and search, or 2. position yourself in the hallway to enter a room or other area that opens off of it. In either case, the hallway itself may become an area to search. Your entry into it must be cautious. It’s always possible the suspect has changed locations from where you think he is and is waiting with hostile intent just around the corner. Indeed, hallways are ready-made for an ambush. If silently pausing and carefully listening reveal no clues that anyone’s there, you should minimally make a quick peek to “clear” the hallway before you enter it. A high peek gives you the greatest speed and does not subject your vital areas to the risk of bullets bouncing off the floor. However, a high peek is more likely to be anticipated by a suspect, and he may even have his gun up and ready for it. A low peek is less likely to be seen. Indeed, if the suspect is in certain shooting stances, his arms may block out some of his vision downward. If he does see you, he’ll have to lower his aim to target you, thus creating more lag time. Instead of automatically positioning yourself in the conventional location for a quick peek (right at the corner you want to see around), consider moving to the opposite wall, then peeking out. If someone is just past the corner, this maximizes your distance from him.

To surveil from the opposite wall means the wall behind you, not moving across the hallway laterally as shown here where you are totally vulnerable to attack.

Ideally in building searches, the quick peek should be performed with two officers. You peek while your partner covers you. If an offender sees you and moves to assault before you can get into position to control

him, your partner is prepared to deal with him.

If that’s not possible and you see an immediate threat, follow through. Either prepare for or activate a confrontation or, much better, Anis)

withdraw to a position of cover. If you just pull your head back and wait by the corner to see what’s going to happen next, the offender has a golden opportunity to charge around or just stick his arm around and shoot you, or fire through the wall to your position. If the hallway seems empty, take another peek from a different elevation to solidify your identification of other Problem Areas and Areas of Responsibility, so you know what challenges you’II face once you enter. In a darkened hall, this can be done with your flashlight held high above your head and pointed slightly down (as can your initial peek, of course). Check particularly for doors that are ajar or open. These likely will be your highest-hazard areas. Many times a high-intensity flashlight will reveal them when the hallway’s ambient lighting does not.

If you’re approaching a hallway that extends both to your right and your left, as at a “T” intersection, you and your partner can simultaneously quick peek in opposite directions from opposite corners. True, you 113

are somewhat bunched together at the intersection and you do momentarily sacrifice firepower readiness because your guns will not be in a shooting position during the quick peeks. But you gain a comprehensive view of the hall and its possible threats in both directions with essentially one fast movement. (If you try to keep your sidearm ready, you are likely either to expose its barrel before your head bobs out or dangerously slow down your out-and-back movement.) When you want to exercise greater caution and present a higher degree of readiness as you enter, use a security move, either in place of or in addition to a surveillance move. Here you move around a corner with your sidearm ready to meet resistance with resistance. It takes longer than quick surveillance and requires greater body movement, but it heightens your control. One option is called “slicing the pie.” It’s appropriate not only for entering hallways, but any time you need to move around a corner or other cover and feel a threat may be imminent on the other side. As you near the corner, carefully move out from the wall 3 feet or so, assuming space permits. Face the corner with your body straight, your feet and legs together. Your sidearm should be out in a two-hand hold, but keep your elbows close together, pulled back and tucked in toward the center of your body. This steadies your sidearm in a third-eye position while keeping your body as narrow as possible. It also tends to reduce the tendency to “lead” with your sidearm, exposing it around the corner prematurely. By shuffling your feet to the side a little bit at a time, tightly following one with the other, you can move in little slices toward the corner, gradually increasing your field of view around it. If someone is hiding there, chances are that you'll be able to pick up his protruding feet or shoulder before he can see you. You may have to fight an impulse to hug up close against the wall because it is hard material. What you’re fighting, really, is a false sense of protection. By swinging out in this slow fashion, you can gain an advantage of angle that will better serve your safety.

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If the hallway is dark, consider placing your flashlight into it to light it up. But when you slice the pie, be sure the light is located well ahead of you so you are not silhouetted by the splash-back. Again, at some

“T”’ intersections, you and your partner can slice

the pie simultaneously, covering opposite directions by standing backto-back. Most hallways are not wide enough to accommodate this technique, and it does create a bunching risk. But where it’s possible, it’s likely to be better tactically than having one officer conduct a move in which he faces only the potential threat(s) in one direction without having his back covered. Once you decide to enter, only one officer should enter the hallway at a time. Again, one moves...one provides as much cover as possible. One may want to maintain a standing barricade cover position at the corner, ready to shoot, while the other moves down the hall, staying low and going down the side opposite the cover officer or down the middle to minimize the cross-fire risk. This way if shooting erupts, both officers are not in the hall scrambling to escape; the officer at the corner has some hope of concentrating fully on returning fire. Both you and your partner may eventually be in the hallway simultaneously (if you’re going to make a room entry from there, this will be mandatory), but you still want to stay a distance apart, probably on opposite sides, one farther back than the other. Try to apply the principle of triangulation as you approach doorways and other Areas of Responsibility. But that does NOT mean moving shoulder to shoulder, side by side, down the hall. ;

This corridor advance illustrates proper positioning for triangulation as well as good separation. A suspect would have difficulty assaulting both officers at the same time.

If you are moving through a hallway to another location rather than searching each room along it, it usually won’t be practical to check every closed door as you pass. In an apartment building or hotel, if you twist or rattle each doorknob to see if it’s locked, as is often recommended, you may alarm innocent people inside. They may shout at you, creating a commotion, or pop out behind you as you move on to see what’s going

on...and thereby present additional Problem Areas. In certain environments, these occupants, who otherwise might remain unaware of your presence, may become fresh sources of hostility and danger. You may be safer in the long run to get out of the hallway with as little time and disturbance as possible and get on to your destination. Manpower permitting, you can leave an officer behind to maintain security. In some settings, especially if there’s no one available to leave behind, you may want to secure or “alarm” the doors you pass, even though you don’t try to open them. Doorknobs can be tied together with pieces of nylon cord, your pants belt or bungee cords (although the elasticized nature of the latter tend to make them the least satisfactory). Wedges will block doors that open out into the hall. So will furniture shoved against them. To secure doors that open into rooms or closets, some officers use a piece of plywood in which a keyhole shape has been cut. This slips down over the doorknob and is wide enough to overlap the frame, preventing the door from being pulled open from the inside. Another option is to connect doorknobs that are across the hall from each other with a strap or cord so neither can be opened in. To “alarm” doors, rig them so you can hear if one behind you is opened. Lean something against it (a broom, for example) that will clatter when it falls or is knocked down by the door moving. Or balance an item on the doorknob or jam it between the door and the frame so it will crash to the floor if disturbed. Even without special alarming, you can hear most doors open. Remember, it take some time for an offender to get a door open, locate and try to shoot you—and at the first sound, you can be moving to return fire or reach cover. As you move down the hallway, particularly if it is a long one or you plan to stay in it long enough to make a room entry, try to establish a place to which you can rapidly retreat if trouble explodes. This “escape oasis” may be an alcove, an elevator whose doors you can lock open, a utility closet or an open room you have cleared—some place where you can take cover and regroup so that you do not have to defend yourself out in the open.

Doorways Everyone knows that because of the penetrability of most doors and the gut instincts of violent subjects, the most dangerous place you can be

outside a closed door is right in front of it. But many officers fail to consider another important doorway characteristic: the second chanciest place to stand is on the hinged side if the hinges are not visible and on the knob side if they are. When the door opens and you’re there, you risk being in the immediate field of view—and direct field of fire—of a suspect waiting in the area you’re preparing to enter. To make entry, either into a building or into a room inside, you or your partner may eventually need to position yourself in this hot spot. But be aware that if you’re “it” and your partner is on the other side of the doorway, he can offer you little effective cover fire there initially. You'll have to control your field of view yourself as the door opens. So get low and get ready, with your sidearm in a firing position.

The “fatal funnel” concept connected with doorways is usually

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These two drawings show the comparative fields of view you can establish with different visual techniques before entering a room. If you use a mirror, you can surveil the area designated by M(1). With a proper quick peek, your field of view will be roughly within the QP(1) area. Your partner’s vantage point permits him views M(2) and QP(2) respectively.

A security move like “slicing the pie” gives you a wider field of view inside the room than either of the two surveillance moves illustrated in the first drawing. Plus you are able to control the area with firearms readiness as you observe it. Lit

thought of only in terms of standing in or going through the opening. But if a suspect is hiding along the wall that the door is on, his angle of sight through the opening door may be such that he can see (and shoot) you even if you are standing to the side of the actual doorway. Even if he’s on the hinge side of a door that opens in, he may be able to see through the crack. He’ll have greater difficulty angling his gun just right to shoot through the slit, but it can be done, as a sergeant in Texas learned when he was shot to death through the crack with a .38 as he and three plainclothes officers were trying to execute a narcotics search warrant at a motel. To truly be clear of the fatal funnel, you will need to stand well back from the doorway, if possible, while the door is being opened. These and other considerations make it important that you analyze the door you’re dealing with before you get into position around it. When you're trying for a swift, smooth, coordinated entry, you don’t want to have to rearrange your intended pattern of movement to compensate for miscalculations you made about getting the door open. The more times

you have to cross back and forth in front of the door and the more time you have to spend in other vulnerable spots, the higher risk your entry becomes. Any time you do cross a doorway, especially when the door is open, consider Jeaping rather than striding or crawling. It’s noisier, but as a faster-moving target, you'll be harder to sight and shoot before you clear the other side, even if a suspect has his gun trained on the doorway. Be sure you start and end your leap well to the sides of the frame. For certain, don’t mimic some television “cops” by swinging into the center of an open doorway with your sidearm pointed into the room, then pivot to the other side. That slow move prolongs your exposure to the fatal funnel and

effectively Locates you for the adversary. It also violates the dictum: “Tf you're going to move, move, if you’re going to shoot, shoot.” Don’t try to accommodate both with the same tactic. If the door is closed, you can step across, which is quieter. Start at a 90° angle to the wall, move your outside foot first and pivot on your other foot as you move. This will turn you so you are properly positioned for defense when you reach the other side. The risks of getting a closed door open in order to make entry can be eased by you and your partner working together. If the door is unlocked and opens out, one method is for the two of you to stay low on opposite sides of the doorway. Assuming you’re nearer the knob, loop a piece of cord, a shotgun sling or your pants belt around the knob and toss the loose end to your partner. Stay back along the wall as far as possible from the doorway and reach out the full length of your arm to release the latch. When you’ve then pulled back even farther and have gotten your sidearm ready, your partner pulls the door fully open. If you have nothing with which to rig the knob, you can “throw” the door to your partner and he can reach out and grab it. That keeps either of you from having to risk total vulnerability. A door with a heavy spring or automatic closing device can be held open with a sturdy wedge shoved underneath or jammed into the crack between the door and frame. (An automatic closer may be signaled by a hook or coupling on the door that

you can see when assessing its characteristics. ]

If the door opens in and you’re on the knob side, you should try to throw it back against the wall by yourself because your partner will be in

the most vulnerable field of view. First open the door about an inch, back

away from the doorway and listen for a moment. Then try to shove the door open with enough force to strike the wall or anyone hiding behind 118

the door. At length while part of its arc door swings,

most, your partner should reach his fingers out at arm’s staying close to the wall to press the door through the final if it’s too heavy to move fully from your throw alone. As the you should be able to get a partial visual through the crack.

Using a rope to open the door, the officer limits exposure to a possible threat inside. Once the door is open he surveils his Area of Responsibility.

Some doors that open in will have screens that open out. When you “throw” the screen to your partner, he may be able to unhook the spring, engage a stop or prop the outer door back against the wall with his foot while you deal with the main door. If the screen does not open back fully, 119

he can hook the toe of his shoe under it and hold it open for you without . tying up his hands. When you find a door already ajar, you can push it all the way open (hard, so it hits the wall behind it) with your flashlight without exposing vital parts of your body. How you open a locked door may depend on your mission. In raid or special weapons situations, where there’s access to special equipment and time for planning, your options include: a two- or four-officer battering ram (much better than a sledge hammer)...primer cord wrapped around the knob and ignited to blow it off...a knob cutter (available from most fire departments)...a maul with a V-shaped head to splinter the door...or a prying device, operated by crank or hydraulic power, designed to force the door open by spreading it apart from the frame, releasing any locks and bolts. With a door that opens out, a prying wedge may be essential to your forcing it open successfully.

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(left) Early use sledge from eight door. Note

morning drug raid. Officer forced to stand hammer. (right) This officer demonstrates inch steel sewer pipe which only required that contact is made off to the side which

directly in front of door in order to a home-made battering ram made one swing to pop this dead-bolted allows mobility.

As a patrol officer dealing with a door that opens in, your foot is

probably going to be the “key” that does the unlocking. And when you use it, your risk rockets. When you’re kicking (or knocking, in less urgent situations), a suspect inside may then think he knows where you are, and that’s when he’s likeliest to try to shoot what he can’t see by firing through the door. In terms of body mechanics, the Jower you can make your kick the

stronger it will be. Of course, you want to avoid standing in front of the door to kick it, but if you’re left no other choice, then give a sideways’

thrust as close to the knob as possible, immediately drop to the floor and roll away. Or perform the kick on your back (which will be well below the height your adversary probably expects), your sidearm pointed toward the doorway, then roll after kicking. 120

A preferred alternative is the “fireman’s” or “mule” kick. You and your partner are both positioned on the knob side of the door. As kicker, you’re nearer the knob, away from the wall a bit, facing out. You lean forward and your partner supports you with his hand on your chest for balance. Then you raise your knee and drive your heel back into the door. This can deliver amazing power. Try to hit to the side of the knob that’s away from the frame, yet not in the dead center where your foot’s likeliest to go through the door and hang you up. Hitting the knob itself or between the knob and frame can break your ankle or trap your foot. You kick the door, but it’s generally the frame that gives. If the door resists because it is reinforced with a deadbolt or other supplementary locks on the inside, try kicking the hinged side. This is often the weakest part of the door, but is frequently overlooked. Yet hinges are almost never reinforced. Or, probably better yet, use a ram. Just because no one fires at you when the door flies open, don’t assume no one’s in there. You may be dealing with a more sophisticated offender than the average junkie you can spook. Once you’ve opened or forced the door, WAIT a bit, unless there’s an urgent need to enter or your mission requires an immediate, dynamic assault.

You may want to throw a distractor into the room to see if you can provoke a response before making entry. With some exceptions, sound distractors generally seem less successful in drawing a hidden offender’s Het

The “fireman’s kick” affords a surprising degree of control, even when used alone.

fire, exposing his position and causing him to deplete his ammunition than do distractors that are light-oriented. One exception is the “flash bang” or stun grenade. Its loud explosion and smoke tend to disorient anyone confined in the typical room, giving you several seconds in which to capitalize on his lag time. A cherry bomb can accomplish a similar effect. But throwing in non-explosive items (brooms, cans, lightbulbs, etc.) in hopes their clatter will divert an offender from the doorway usually proves futile. Light distractors generally are more effective because of the eyes’ natural tendency to be attracted automatically to light, especially in darkness. Thus a strobing light, a Cyalume “glow stick” or some improvised light source tossed from behind cover to a spot in a room away from where you plan to enter may prompt an offender to reveal his presence or at least cause him to look away from your location at the crucial moment. Two officers responding to a burglary-in-progress at a record shop saw a suspect inside when they looked through a broken window. From behind

cover, they tossed in a strobing device attached to a fish line. The startled suspect fired at it five times with armor-piercing .357 Magnum rounds.

He said later that he thought it was an officer’s flashlight. While he was distracted, the officers deployed safely to positions where they had the drop on him, forcing him to surrender with no one hurt. If the distractor is bright enough, it may also assist in lighting a darkened room for a safer entry, but by themselves most devices are not adequate to search by. _—Mm Nm

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The principles which have been shared on doorways so far have a special significance in approaching exterior, multiple doorways adjacent to glass. Here is such a situation in which officers conducted a door-to-door search for a gunman who was alleged to have killed five people. A number of things here bear some thought: the choice of searching with a lever-action deer rifle, two officers standing in a doorway at the same time, everyone positioned so close together. If shooting were to erupt, what would the officer lying on his side do?

as Tactical officers look for a man who shot two FBI agents. One room has been cleared, the adjacent one is now their Problem Area. The officer on the far right is positioned inappropriately in front of the window. The officer crouched with the cut-down Ithica shotgun has advanced as far forward as he should, but appears to be a cover officer rather than a point man. Proning out reduces mobility for a possible retreat with others potentially in the line of fire. What might be an alternative approach to this mission, using fewer officers and more control? Turn the page. 123

Here is a re-creation of the typical motel scene. The offender is believed to be hiding in one of the rooms. Officer 1 is the only one in the doorway which has been wedged with a knife. From the hall behind, Officers 2 and 3 are concealed. Officer 1 advances using a low position which is both quiet and affords Officer 2 (shotgun) the opportunity to cover Officer 1. Officer 1 passes underneath the wide window. After he quickly glances into the room through the open curtain, he signals Officer 2 as to the room condition (empty from what he can see.) Officer 2 now advances to cover Officer l’s entry to the first room. Officer 3 is signalled to advance his position to the first window to provide cover, especially since the curtains are open. Officer 1 makes entry to the second room as Officer 2 again provides cover. Note how Officer 2 stands so Officer | has an escape route if needed. In the sixth sequence, bunching is avoided. Officer 1, using the third eye concept, attempts to see into the third room past the curtains. Once Officer 4 opens the door to the third room, he can move back inside for cover, should shooting erupt. All movements are made swiftly and with a limited number of officers, all with pre-assigned duties. 124

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This portable strobe can be an effective distractor with a hidden subject.

When you do make entry, strive for the “Five S's”: speed... surprise ...Simplicity...safety and...superiority of manpower and firepower. Quick peek before you move. Then get in...get low...get your back protected...and get your Areas of Responsibility established and under control as quickly as possible. How you go through a doorway will be influenced by its structure, by the configuration of your “launching pad” area outside, by the size and shape of the room you’re entering and by what you can see of the room before you go in. Remember, for entering doorways as with other aspects of building searches, DESIGN DICTATES. Don’t dally in the doorway; don’t just stand there and look in or saunter through, as some officers do. For speed, move high; that is, in nothing lower than a crouch. If you go low (squatting, with knees radically bent) you’ll have to go slow. Moving at or near your top speed will then be virtually impossible. Use a pattern, an organized way of entering in minimum time with minimum exposure. Patterns are not absolutes, and getting in fast is usually more important than executing a perfect entry movement. Nonetheless, here are some of the “classic” methods you may find handy to have among your options. (Although these patterns are described as if

both you and your partner are making entry, where the environment demands a one-officer penetration, these movements for the most part can be adapted. If only you go in, your partner takes as secure a position as possible outside the doorway and provides you as much protection as he can. As arule, he should not enter unless the position he would take in the room offers him at least as much cover, concealment and visibility as he can get from his security cover position outside. Few rooms, espe-

cially in residences, will permit more than two officers inside without serious cross-fire problems. Additional searching officers can remain outside the room for doorway and/or hallway security.] i)nn

(left) Prior to making entry you should be aware of your body and firearm positioning, and concealment. Officer (right) is not touching the wall and has his long gun pointed up for mobility. His gaze is toward his Area of Responsibility. Back-up officer has a similar degree of awareness and is operating in Condition Orange as he prepares to enter. He, too, is away from

the corner and has his hat bill turned around to avoid detection.

The Wrap-Around or “button hook” most often starts with you and your partner on the same side of the doorway, perhaps because a wall or some other barrier inside or outside prevents your taking opposite sides initially. Ideally, you want to perform this move opposite the hinged side so you won't have the door itself to contend with. One at a time, keeping your backs close to the frame, you “wrap” yourselves around it to the

other side of the wall. Practicing your foot placemient so you can move in a continuous, fluid motion without pausing in the doorway is the secret to making this technique successful. Either your partner enters immediately after you or he moves to the position you just left and waits a bit, meantime covering the field of view he has of the room. Either method can be tactically sound. If both of you enter nearly simultaneously and there’s only one suspect inside, right off you have him outnumbered. If your partner delays and you happen to get shot at, your partner’s still in a somewhat protected position.

Drawbacks of this pattern are that it’s relatively slow and unless you space yourselves properly after entering, you may tend to bunch near the door. (Where doorway characteristics permit, the Wrap-Around can 126

also be done with you and your partner starting on opposite sides of the doorway. You wrap around simultaneously and cover each other’s position as you move. This is only appropriate with wide doorways, however, lest you bump into each other in the entrance.)

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Sequence illustrates the Wrap-Around as a quick series of movements. Notice at the point both officers move through the doorway, there are no crossfires. Movement has not compromised weapon positioning. Both move simultaneously inside to a position away from the door opening. As you can see, the officer on the right has not as yet reached his final inside position since he has farther to move than his partner.

The Diagonal room entry pattern.

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The Diagonal is now regaining popularity, especially among special weapons teams, because of its speed. With both you and your partner on the same side of the doorway, you simultaneously rush crosswise through the entrance, ideally to some position(s) of cover inside the room. An offender may expect you to remain near the doorway once you've entered, so ending up in less obvious positions not only can be fast but also unanticipated. The Diagonal works best if there are cover opportunities near the doorway...if what you’re running to is adequate cover...and if it’s not cover that the adversary himself has chosen. The Diagonal takes planning and assessment before movement. It’s not just charging blindly into a room and hoping you will somehow end up behind something that can stop bullets.

The X room entry pattern.

The X is the entry pattern of choice for many officers. Deploying

from both sides of the doorway, you and your partner enter in crisscross

fashion. This allows you to readily subdivide the room and split the Areas of Responsibility once you are inside. To avoid colliding in the doorway, develop and practice a count svstem: beginning simultaneously 129

and counting to yourselves, the officer on the right initiates his move on the count of 3, the officer on the left moves one beat later on 4. When you can use it, the X Pattern will tend to separate a suspect’s focus and create lag time while he decides which potential target to concentrate on first. However, a drawback of the X is that few homes have rooms and/or doorways whose size or design can support its use. Furni-

ture near the door may also limit it. Plus, if the suspect decides to charge toward the doorway to escape or attack, you and your partner may find

yourselves in a cross-fire position as he nears or crosses the threshold.

The Reverse X room entry pattern.

The Reverse X starts like the conventional X, with you and your partner on opposite sides of the doorway, but here you don’t enter on diagonal lines. Instead, as you’re going in you step against the bottom of the door frame opposite where you started and spring off of it. You come

back across the entrance so that you land in the room just around the frame from the location where you began. Your partner follows suit. He starts moving when your foot touches the frame. Sometimes a suspect,

especially if he has military training, will try to “lead” your position 130

with his firearm, following you like a hunter as you go through the doorway. The Reverse X can throw him off. The disadvantage is that his lag time may leave his gun positioned so that your partner now leaps into his line of fire. Also, although the movement can be very fast if practiced sufficiently, each officer in fact must cross the open doorway twice to complete the pattern, and this may leave both of you in the fatal funnel too long. All entry patterns, while infinitely better than impulsively rushing the room, are tricky to perform and are freighted with risk. They require enough practice with your partner for you to be able to conduct them smoothly and confidently, knowing what each of you is going to do. Without practice, you are likely to stop cold to think and ask yourself, “What do I do next?”” While you’re wondering, the offender’s Thought Processes can reach the point of Attacking. And you cannot think faster than an assailant can act. Once you and your partner are across the threshold and inside the room, get down and get away from the doorway. You may be tempted to stay close for escape but, if too near it, you can still be silhouetted from certain angles inside the room. Immediately establish your respective Problem Areas and Areas of Responsibility, with the officer on the left taking the left side of the room, the one on the right the right side. The moment you are out of the doorway and at your new position, squat low and “sweep” your half of the room. With your sidearm up in the ready position, you quickly move it in a flat arc from the outside of the room toward the middle. Your partner does the same. Different from a wild swing, the sweep is a systematic movement that really is the finish of your fluid motion of entry. It allows you to assess the room fully in no more than | to 14 seconds while prepared to control or counter any threat.

“Softening”

Rooms

Having established your Areas of Responsibility, your challenge now is to clear them, to “soften” the room, with the same amount of safety you used to enter. Threat locations typically include under beds, behind sofas and other large pieces of furniture, in closets, or around corners within the room. Look especially for furniture that sits out more than 8 or 10 inches from the wall, doors that are open and doorways that lead to adjoining rooms, and scan the floor under drapes to check for feet. Considering a suspect’s Thought Processes, your primary Area of Responsibility will be that spot which, if someone’s hiding there, would give him the greatest opportunity to Locate and effectively Attack you. An offender may be able to Locate you with equal ease from under a bed or from inside a closet with the door ajar. But an attack from the closet

would likely be more grave because that location may permit a center mass chest hit, while from under the bed an assailant will likely be able only to shoot at your feet or legs. Also it’s more likely that someone will hide in the typical closet than under the typical bed because of space considerations. The closet thus becomes your primary Area of Responsi-

bility: In a majority of residential rooms, closets with doors open or ajar will prove in fact to be your most hazardous sites. Sometimes in order to approach and check your primary Area of Responsibility, you have to first clear one or more secondary hazard areas

to make cover for yourself or create a pathway for safe movement. You cannot always approach your greatest threat potential directly. Also, your top concern may change as portions of the room are cleared and potential threat locations are eliminated. Typically, you’ll have to monitor more than one Area at a time. So resist the temptation to tunnel in solely on just one trouble-spot, or you may exclude other valid threat locations. Because these locations will differ from room to room, you will not be able to follow any rigidly prescribed search pattern, such as “always search all rooms clockwise or counterclockwise” or “always start at one wall and go to the opposite wall.” Your positioning relative to your threat location(s) will determine your pattern of search. Don’t help a would-be attacker Locate you by being careless around mirrors and other reflective objects (even shiny chrome on bathroom fixtures may reflect your image)... by turning off radios or tv sets before you've cleared the entire room (the suspect may know their location and thus know where you’d have to be to touch them)...by becoming silhouetted against doors or windows...by turning your back to unsearched areas...or by succumbing to impatience and abandoning cover or concealment to rush a potential high-risk site.

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The “rules” of building searches say you should always move around the perimeters of rooms, your back to the wall. In real life, furnishings or other obstacles often prevent this, but in large open rooms (like warehouse areas and auditoriums) it’s tactically sound for lessening the chance that you'll unwittingly expose your back to a suspect's field of view. Stay low to reduce yourself as a target. At your standing height, a suspect looking up from behind cover may be able to see you before you can see him because of your different angles of observation. Low, you're not only better protected from his view but you also may be better able to see under furniture to spot him. In large spaces that require time and distance to search, a “duck walk” or a “crab walk” will be more comfortable for moving than an ordinary crouching crawl. The duck walk is a forward movement, initiated from a squatting position. Push off and alternately let one knee down to the floor while the other is raised. By letting each knee descend all the way down in turn, you allow your leg muscles alternating moments of relaxation as you move. With practice, you can move quickly, while still keeping your gun in a third-eye position. The crab walk or “side shuffle,” which also offers those advantages, is a lateral movement. From a kneeling position, you take steps sideways in the direction you want to move. If fatigue sets in, you are able to rest on one knee, still with your firearm ready. Whether you and your partner choose to negotiate the same side of the room or along opposite sides or whether your partner remains outside the room, only one of you should move at a time, just as with halls and stairways. The other provides security. Ironically, it’s the stationary officer who often ends up doing the “searching.” As the moving officer, you may be able to open closet doors or raise bedcovers so he can see into such potential hiding places and clear them from his more distant vantage point.

For opening a door, say to a closet, don’t just fork your fingers over the knob and gently pull it open. Someone inside who decides to force his way out can hit the door hard enough to break your fingers and knock it out of your control. Grip from under the knob with your fist, thumb side up, and yank. Then if there’s sudden pressure from the other side, you have the power to shove the door back against him with force. Generally you'll gain little by moving furniture, unless to temporarily block doors from being opened. Ramming a piece of furniture against a door may startle a suspect and cause him to give his position away. But officers sometimes become obsessed with shoving sofas and chairs around, believing they afford cover when actually their soft material can easily be penetrated by even modest ammunition. Be careful about randomly or automatically moving other items, too. This is where officers generally run into problems with improvised explosives encountered during searches. Their curiosity proves stronger than their critical thinking. One searcher canvassing a restaurant that had been bombed found a shopping bag on the roof. He might have regarded that as something that didn’t quite fit right, but instead he unthinkingly picked it up. It proved to be a second bomb, rigged to explode from motion, and it blew off his hand. Luckier, but no less careless, was an officer in the Southwest who picked up a piece of pipe he encountered during a search and curiously unscrewed the cap on one end. Black powder cascaded out. The cap and threads on the other end of this homemade bomb had been packed with match heads. Had the officer twisted that end 4 inch, he would have touched off a blast. 133

The “duck walk” movement.

134

When turning the knob, maintain proper handgun placement.

The rule is: move yourself, not other things. If you do encounter something that seems out of place or suspicious, DON’T TOUCH IT. Follow the bomb squad philosophy: Don’t do anything unless you know for certain the reaction that’s going to follow. Back out by retracing your path and get someone with bomb disposal experience on the scene to advise you. As you search, be conscious of what you smell, as well. An odor of flammables may alert you to a trap an offender has left behind—or to a home-brew weapon that is in his hands as he waits for you. Be alert also for any ticking sounds. These may be coming from the clock-work timing mechanism of an explosive device. As you move, your sidearm should be ready to meet with force any movement or sound that you believe presents an imminent deadly threat. Commit yourself to the idea that resistance is met with resistance. Noises or motions you can’t identify should be forcefully challenged from your nearest cover. “ You in the closet! I want to see your hands! Hands first!” Command the cause of your concern to come to you. Don’t you approach what may prove to be an armed suspect lying in wait.

If a suspect is captured, stop searching until he’s dealt with. Move him to a secured area and, while another officer covers, handcuff and search him for hidden weapons. Be sure you pick the spot for this search, not him. If he’s allowed to choose, he may select a site where he has weapons hidden within reach. If more than two officers are present, one can remain to guard the suspect while others resume the building search. Or the offender can be removed from the building via a pathway that has previously been cleared. If only two of you are involved in the search and parts of the building have not yet been cleared, the safest procedure is for both of you to exit the premises with the suspect. If your partner is left inside alone, he may be ambushed and overpowered or may get antsy and decide to continue the search by himself, changing to a location unknown to you. If one of you does stay inside, hold a position that gives you maximum security and observation and that allows you to provide a protected

pathway for your partner to rejoin you. If both of you go out, then reenter and re-search the building back to your previous position, after back-up has taken control of the subject. Finding one suspect, of course, should be regarded like finding one concealed weapon: assume more. Anyone you encounter during a building search should at least be detained and thoroughly interrogated and preferably be arrested, handcuffed and searched pending further information. Had this principle been followed in Dallas when President John E Kennedy was assassinated, considerable public hysteria and the death of a police officer would have been prevented. Less than two minutes after the motorcade attack, a motor officer rushed inside the Texas School Book Depository to search for the assailant—and on the second floor came face to face with Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was allowed to pass on out of the building when a civilian identified him as an employee. As you recall, the next police contact with Oswald involved his killing Officer J. D. Tippit. After you’ve cleared a room, be sure all doors behind you are closed and locked if possible, before you move on. Even if the doors are

136

unsecured, a suspect will have to expend time and noise to get them open, and these can constitute an early warning system. If you’re moving out of earshot or beyond surveillance range, wedge or tie them for peace of mind. When you pass these doors again on your way out, collect your wedges or cords—and be sure none has been disturbed. Attics and ceiling crawl spaces are commonly the last places searched on upper floors before dealing with the basement. To minimize your exposure, use a broom handle or like device to push open the trap door or panel covering the opening. One option then is to bounce a highintensity flashlight beam off a mirror to scope out the area from below. (If the mirror is angled properly, the light won’t bounce back and blind you.) Or, on the access ladder or a stool, take quick peeks into the area, tilting your head so you peek with only your top eye. This risks less of your head above the opening. If you need to place a light source on the attic floor for illumination, consider using a strobing device rather than your flashlight to more effectively disorient a hidden suspect. Keep other officers away from you. If you’re fired upon, you’!] want to leap down instantly and dart to cover, without colliding with them or being caught in their impulsive cross fire.

Real

World Adaptations

How can you adapt these principles to actual field situations? Consider the tactical decision-making of two officers responding recently to a daylight residential break-in in a middle-class suburb. Their movements do not represent the only desirable way the building involved could have been searched. Nor do they reflect the meticulous ultra wariness a special-weapons team might display. But they do demonstrate planned action, not impulse, indifference or indecision. Unlike SWAT-

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team members, who assume an assailant is lying in wait, the officers weren’t anticipating a shootout. But they were aware that in any building search, anything can happen...and they wanted to be ready. Their

choices played off the environment they faced and were shaped. by tactical caution and a continual reassessment of potential threat. Given their circumstances, see how your Tactical Thinking would compare with theirs. And, just as important, understanding the reasoning behind the choices that were made. The scene is a two-story brick house, whose occupants are out of town. A neighbor returning from shopping notices a second-story window over the attached garage smashed in, the front door open wide. Having never been in the house, she cannot advise on its layout. In a

quick canvass of the exterior, the officers find side and rear doors, locked. Quick peeks in garage windows show it clear. They shout commands for anyone in the house to exit. No response. Additional manpower is unavailable. They decide to make entry through the front door, which opens from a small stone porch into a narrow foyer and hallway.

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View from right side of front door.

View from left side.

First objective: establish a security position in the house. Officer 1, crouched to the right of the doorway, throws the screen door to his partner, who holds it open with his toe. Officer 1’s goal is to wind up on the Jower steps that parallel the hallway. There, he reasons, he’ll be offset enough from the hall to be out of the fatal funnel. That is, not directly silhouetted in the front doorway for an assailant who might shoot down the corridor from the kitchen. And at the moment, that’s what he considers his primary threat. Because the lower steps are also offset somewhat from the rest of the stairs, the position additionally affords some protection from the stairtop. To Locate and shoot him, an attacker would have to jump from the upstairs hallway onto the upper landing: stumbling, awkward, resulting likely in inaccurate fire. Officer 1 feels he’d have more time on the lower steps to react to that threat than he would to an attack from the kitchen if he were positioned in the hallway. He knows the two closed doors down the hall both open to his advantage; he can see the hinges on his side. Anyone attacking from behind them will first have to swing them open, then reveal himself in the hall, giving Officer 1 time to react. From the steps, even an assault from the living room could be met with force. It’s not a place he’ll want to stay long. But it can serve as a starting point for searching the first floor. As Officer 1 prepares to enter, Officer 2 assumes a barricade position on his side of the doorway, his sidearm pointed toward the upper landing, the potential threat location he can best observe. Moving low with sidearm in hand, Officer 1 wraps around onto the threshold and initiates a rapid series of quick peeks at different heights to clear a path to the steps. After each he pulls back to his cover position outside rather than stay steadily in the doorway. First from the threshold he yanks back the

closet door and quick peeks around it to clear the interior. Then with a low, giant step he ducks forward to clear the lower corner of the staircase 139

that neither he nor his partner can see from outside. A quick glance up while he’s low clears the blind spot on the upper landing. With a final peek in, he checks slightly more of the living room. All this takes just seconds. Then he moves, his sidearm in the belt-tuck position. With Officer 1 in position, Officer 2 braces the screen door open with its stop accessory and leaps across the doorway to his partner’s former position. The choice now: soften the kitchen...or the living room. From the steps, Officer 1 can see in the reflective surface of the dishwasher that the right-hand portion of the kitchen is clear. Through the distant doorway at the kitchen’s left rear, he sees about the same thin slice of the family room or den at the back of the house as he saw from the front porch. One big section of the kitchen is still blind to him. By bobbing to different angles on the steps and by taking one fast, low, springing step with one foot across the hall and back to peek into the right corner past the living room arch, he’s able quickly to piece together this visual of the living room:

Officer 1 identifies several potential threat locations here: around the corner of the tall cabinet... inside it... behind the sofa... behind the large chair...and at the far archway (from hidden regions of the dining room). To try to reach the kitchen, Officer 1 reasons, he’d have to make

himself vulnerable to the risk of cross fire; if shooting starts while he’s in the hallway, his partner will either be helpless to defend him or, if Officer 140

2 does shoot, that will itself become a threat to Officer 1. The narrow hallway will drastically restrict Officer 1’s mobility. He’ll have to open and check both doors along it; he’d not feel safe passing and exposing his back to them, especially since once he was past them, they’d open to his disadvantage. And the whole time, he’d be silhouetted in the fatal funnel of the front doorway. He opts for the living room, believing its risks are the ones he can best control. None of its contents provides true cover for an offender, as the officer could likely shoot through any of the furniture if he perceived an imminent threat behind it. His objective now is to reach a position at the far archway, from which he can make entry to the dining room. To begin systematically eliminating his Areas of Responsibility, Officer | moves from the steps to the end of the cabinet. A low quick peek around it confirms no one’s hiding on its front side and that it extends too close to the wall to shield anyone behind its other end. Its doors are closed tight. The officer then steps across to the other side of the entry arch, behind the writing desk. He feels least control—and thus most apprehension—over the dining room. But with the officer in the corner by the desk, an offender will have to reveal more of himself around the dining room arch to Locate him than anywhere else in the room, buying the officer more reaction time. Here he can monitor all the Areas of Responsibility he has yet to clear, while Officer 2, on signal, moves with his sidearm ready to Officer l’s former position on the lower steps. Squatting with his feet on different steps and his back braced against the wall, Officer 2 can maintain that position comfortably for some time. His primary responsibilities are: the upper stairway landing...the kitchen door...and through it, the family room door. This requires an undesirable separation of focus, but at that Officer 1 prefers having him stay there rather than having both of them in the living room with no security on these potential threat locations. With Officer 2 on the steps, the officers can still provide triangulation of fire to a large portion of the living room, including the worrisome dining room arch.

As Officer 2 moves, Officer 1 clears another Area of Responsibility in the living room—without himself moving an inch. His angle of view into the mirror over the sofa shows him no one’s hiding behind the large chair at the other end of the room. As for the sofa, Officer 1 decides, the long table behind it limits its risk as a threat location. Anyone trying to rise up from behind will have to raise the table with them. Far likelier, an assailant would try to come out from under one of the ends of the table and attack around the sofa. Earlier surveillance by Officer 1 when he was checking around the cabinet has revealed no one near the end closest to the officers. The instant Officer 2 is in position, Officer 1 rounds the writing desk and moves with his back against the wall toward the dining room arch. His principal focus is on the mirror, in which he can see some of the dining room... while maintaining peripheral vision on the unexplored end of the sofa and on the closed doors of the tall cabinet. As his angle of view to the sofa changes as he moves, the chance of anyone being concealed at its end evaporates. The only possibility left is behind it, under the table. Also step by step, more of the dining room unfolds on the mirror’s surface. At one point, the officer discovers that in the back wall of that room is a doorway to the family room, separate from the one in the kitchen. He knows the mirror constitutes no threat to him. The nature of 141

angulation dictates that no one can see him in it without him being able to see them. Near the dining room arch, Officer 1 stops, listens for sounds from the dining room. Quiet. Now Officer 1 quick peeks around the dining room arch to clear what he hasn’t seen of that room. No evident danger. Two quick chores now complete his softening of the living room. First, on his signal, Officer 2 moves to the end of the cabinet. Keeping his back to the cabinet so he can quickly cover the stairs or hall if he hears anything, he reaches around and gently flips open one of its doors. Officer 1, sidearm ready, can see inside from across the room. Shelves top to bottom...no hiding place. Now Officer 2 moves in front of the cabinet and quick peeks behind the sofa. No one’s there. After quick peeking back in the hallway toward the kitchen, Officer 2 resumes his security position on the steps. Back at the archway, Officer 1 knows the dining room looks like this:

ay. 7M Pianist

Rise

The HIGH CRAWL. A move which is quicker, more comfortable and can be used where your cover or concealment won’t quite accommodate a crouch. One version is a hands-and-knees movement, where your 198

weapon lies across the tops of your hands, held by the slings. An alternative is elbows-and-knees, with your weapon cradled in the crooks of your arms. Beware, with any movement that puts your head or chest close to the ground, that bullets can ricochet off grass and dirt as well as hard

surfaces. Indeed, tests by one Oklahoma department show the ricochet potential off grass to be greater than off a sidewalk. Also remember the rule of target expansion. When you are standing, an assailant generally must shoot you in your upper body or head for fatal results. If you are proned out on a surface that can “bounce” bullets, he can now fire anywhere ina long strip stretching between him and you and still likely strike you with ricochet fire. In effect, you expand his effective target area and make yourself a Jarger target by lying down. That’s why you should only prone out behind cover or concealment.

The high crawl with the officer's torso raised off the grass. Note weapon _ positioning and his concealment from possible detection on the other side of the wall.

For crawling, as for other movements, wear gloves. Black leather racquetball gloves are thin and form-fitting enough for good dexterity, but still protective. Don’t wear handcovering you have to remove to fire, however; there may not be time. In cold weather, you can wear mittens over them, slit to permit you fine finger movements when necessary. Another invaluable piece of seasonal equipment, for hot summer nights, is mosquito repellent. Your skill and safety in moving individually or as a team will depend on your knowledge of appropriate techniques... your capacity for sustained performance...your ability to recover rapidly from exertion... your commitment to completing a designated task...and your confidence in facing hazardous circumstances. THESE CAN BE DEVELOPED ONLY THROUGH RIGOROUS, CONSISTENT AND FREQUENT PHYSICAL TRAINING IN ADVANCE OF THE BARRICADE EPISODE. 199

Chemical

Agents

Sometimes a hostile crowd adds pressure to your handling of a barricaded subject...or the offender is too emotionally disturbed, violent or uncommunicative for reasoning. When time and talk no longer seem viable options, chemical agents usually are the safest next step for everyone involved. This is especially true if the barricader is alone. If he has hostages, that may limit this option. Gassed, the hostages may try to flee in panic, endangering their lives even more. Or if the chemical agent does not quickly incapacitate the suspect, its use may anger him into violence against them. With hostages in the barricade, you must weigh relative risks, as well as departmental policy. But certainly, if the offender is the only factor in your decision, chemical munitions generally give you superior protection over entering the barricade and trying to capture him. Chemical agents won’t work equally against all people all the time. PCP users and emotionally disturbed people, for example, tend to have high resistance and may be unfazed. But when chemicals fail to provoke surrender, the fault is more likely due to equipment failure, improper application technique, use of outdated chemicals or lack of sufficient concentration of the agent. An Eastern incident that illustrates several of these shortcomings involved an asphalt worker who killed his neighbor, then fired more than 100 shotgun rounds at over 50 officers who surrounded his house. He refused to answer his phone or to respond to messages shouted through bullhorns. After six hours, police twice lobbed tear gas through his windows. Twice he turned on an electric fan to blow it out, before orders were finally given to shut off his electricity. Then, without replenishing the gas lost, officers attempted entry, smashing down a kitchen door with an axe and a sledge hammer. Just inside, the gunman waited behind a steel plate, unaffected by the faint chemicals. Two blasts from his doublebarreled 12 ga. hit an entry officer. After more gunfire back and forth, a third gas assault was launched. This time, the suspect was killed. The chemical agents used set fire to his house, and he died of smoke inhalation. The proper goal in using chemical agents is to incapacitate the barricader. That does not mean to kill him, but to make him emerge onto your turf wholly incapable of any further assaultive action. He should be able only to fall down and gasp for air...not even to aim a firearm. If he emerges still able to attack, you have only managed to relocate the threat. If he remains inside, still able to shoot, or if he does not come out because you've set his house afire and he has become a crispy critter, chances are overwhelming that your chemical agent selection or delivery was deficient. ; For safest suspect control, you want munitions which ideally meet these requirements: * rapid action

* prolonged effect ; * few or no undesirable side effects * simple, accurate delivery

* ease of decontamination

Of course, no perfect agents exist, but two main chemical compounds that are commercially manufactured come closest to meeting

these requirements—CN (chloraceteophenone}, whose containers are generally color-coded red, and CS (orthochlorobenzalmalononitrile), 200

usually color-coded blue by manufacturers. Read the fine print on the container to know for sure what you are using. Chemical agents obtained from the military (which are likely to be color-coded gray) or from foreign manufacturers are not appropriate for law enforcement use. Agencies that use them put themselves in a precarious liability position. One department, for example, recently complained to a manufacturer that their CN grenades were all “flaming out and burning.” Investigation revealed that the “malfunctioning” grenades were actually military incendiary grenades, capable of attaining 3,500° F. and burning holes in concrete. The department hadn’t understood the symbol “TH” printed on the devices, which indicates a special thermal gas—but went ahead and used them anyway. In another incident, a New York corrections officer supplied a military product labeled “WP” to use as a smoke grenade in a training exercise. WP stands for white phosphorus, which ignites spontaneously upon exposure to air and burns at extremely high temperatures for about 60 seconds. Anything it touches also bursts into flames. The device exploded as a trainee held it, blew apart his hand, virtually obliterated his facial features and roasted more than one-third of his body. He lived, but 19 hospitalizations were required for the painful surgery to construct even a grotesque parody of what he had been. If any chemical agent is brought forth for your use that is not commercially manufactured in the United States, leave it alone. If you are uncertain, contact the manufacturer before experimenting.

(left) Ten different chemical agent munitions used by just one department. Know what they are designed to do and know the labels. (below) Here is how the containers look after being used. (1. to r.) Smoke grenade canister, CS canister (outdoor use), CS burning grenade with internal heat absorber, and a

liquid 37mm CS cartridge.

201

CN (best known to officers in the form of Mace®) is primarily a lachrymator; i.e., the agent, in concentration, can cause a cascade of tears, a burning sensation on moist skin, “snot that hangs clear down to the belly button” and an inability to control the eyelids. CS is an irritant. It does all that CN does, but it also produces a burning in the chest, severe coughing, dizziness, a reduced capacity for physical action and a panicky feeling of suffocation. With an adequate dose of CS, a suspect’s sole concern becomes escaping the barricade for fresh air. An armed robber, shot in the liver during a liquor store stickup, holed up in a house nearby. He was probably 30 minutes away from bleeding to death when officers

filled the place with CS. He forgot all about his wounds. He crawled up a flight of basement steps and out into a foot of snow and told arresting officers, “I can’t stand that stuff any more!” CS is much more powerful and longer lasting than CN; significantly less CS is required to cause incapacitation. Yet it is also far safer, because a much heavier concentration is required to be lethal. CS is unlikely to damage open wounds, and it tends to work against a broader range of people than CN. However, it tends to be slower to take effect initially (sometimes requiring up to two minutes). So some officers like to fire a combination of agents into a barricade—CN to cause an immediate effect and CS to deepen and prolong the incapacitation. While the effects of CN may wear off within 15 minutes, CS can last for hours. For barricades, you want the tiny agent particles containerized in liquid suspension. Most commonly, this will be in 37mm gas gun shells or 12 ga. shotgun shells. When the thick liquid splats out as the projectile nose breaks on impact with something solid, the irritant particles become airborne on an invisible mist. Generally avoid agents that are dispersed by burning or explosion. These pyrotechnic or blast dispersive munitions can be effective outdoors, especially for riot control. But the only time they should be considered for barricades is as a last-ditch effort against a highly dangerous, intractable suspect. Besides the fire risk to his life and property from most pyrotechnics, other innocent people may be endangered. In Arkansas, for example, hot canisters ignited a house and fatally burned the suspect’s wife, who was being held hostage inside. At best, the smoke from these devices can create concealment for the offender and seriously hamper officers entering and searching the barricade, if that becomes necessary. When two robbers were believed barricaded in a two-story house in Minnesota, officers fired 30 rounds of liquid CS inside. One bandit crawled out the back door, rolled over on his back and meekly raised his arms over his head. Thinking the second was still inside, a search team went in, tossing two small smoke-producing canisters into a root cellar upon entry to “secure” it. The masked team moved through the CS with excellent visibility and no ill effects. But on the second floor, they encountered the smoky agent filtering up from the cellar. The team had to prone out on the floor in clearer air for 15 minutes before being able to resume their search. Fortunately, the second suspect was not in there to begin with. A dramatic skirting of disaster with incendiaries occurred during a chemical agent assault on a house in

North Dakota, where a tax protester who had killed two federal agents was believed barricaded. The assault team fired two 40mm pyrotechnic grenades into the house—despite the fact that 98 loaded long guns and 150,000 rounds of live ammunition were reputed to be inside. Fortunately, the grenades, which can burn at over 950° E, did not ignite.

Again, to avoid misuse of materials, read the fine print on labels. 202

Take a guess how this barricader’s house happened to burn to the ground.

Packaging may be confusing, but phrases like “continuous discharge” or “may cause fires” are signals of generally inappropriate barricade munitions. To pick chemical agents indiscriminately, without regard to the jobs they were designed for, is like randomly selecting ammunition for your firearm. Where delivery is concerned, officers frequently fall short by firing a single round of gas...then waiting, to see what happens. Often, not much does; the barricade—and the threat—continue, sometimes with the suspect more infuriated than ever. Gas enthusiasts argue that it’s safer to go full force with a nononsense barrage that has a high likelihood of incapacitating from the outset. Gas officers from one major department in Minnesota with extensive chemical agent experience like to fire multiple rounds at once, or as closely sequenced as possible. They initially try to put two 37mm rounds (or sometimes eight 12 ga. and one 37mm) through each opening into the barricade structure, including attic and basement windows. If that does not end the action within 10 minutes, they consider a second barrage all around. That amount far exceeds manufacturers’ recommendations, which generally say that one 12 ga. projectile can contaminate the air in the average-size room, with a single 37mm round being capable of contaminating five times that much air space. To fire more, according to manufacturers’ representatives, raises the risk of lawsuit liability and

also complicates decontamination efforts afterwards. However, gas officers from the Minnesota department argue that considerable agent is Jost during a typical delivery. Drawn curtains or shades may intercept 75% or more, or a double pane of glass may interfere with proper delivery. Fired through an open window, the agent may stick to a wall or other solid object inside without becoming properly airborne. Or it may penetrate sheetrock and fall to the floor inside a concealed space without ever

reaching the suspect. If you get half of what you fire dispersed where it counts, you’re doing well, according to these officers. Once while trying

to roust an emotionally disturbed barricader, they fired eight CS rounds into her bedroom where she lay on a bed with a gun by her head—with no apparent effect. They calculated later that only about one-half of one round had actually managed to penetrate her extra-sturdy bevelled-glass window—and most of that stuck on a curtain. Tactical differences also exist on where to deliver gas. Some officers argue that you should try to drive the suspect down and out of the barricade by first gassing openings on the floor above where you believe him to be. This will discourage him from moving to higher ground. But you leave a clear passageway ungassed between him and an outside door to encourage and channel his exit.

Others argue, however, that this offers too much risk that he will emerge without having been properly incapacitated. If targets must be prioritized because of limited gas team manpower, this viewpoint says, you first gas exits. If the suspect decides to bail out, he’I1 at least have to go through gas first before he confronts you or other surrounding officers. Next, work to contaminate interior areas he might decide to move to for refuge. If he’s on the second floor of a house, then gas the attic, the entire first floor and the basement. Next, do the rooms around him. Finally, after all his options for establishing a new location are eliminated, gas his present location, perhaps more heavily than the rest. This thorough pattern means more area to decontaminate afterwards, which in some cases may be an impossible task. But it is designed to thwart the kind of incident that occurred in Virginia, where a cop killer was holed up in a house. Officers fired gas through the front windows and door only. Unfazed, the offender burst out the back with a cartridge belt and an extra rifle slung over his back, firing rapidly at tactical officers with an M-1 carbine in his hands. To make each round you fire count most, you want ideally to penetrate one pane of glass to rupture the container’s nose, then ricochet it off the ceiling. This usually means firing through the tops of windows. r

Puff of smoke on the right is a 37mm cartridge which has just bounced off the glass. Not all glass can be penetrated with munitions. 204

A barricaded incident where just two rounds were fired into a paneled door. The top hole was made with a 12 ga. Ferret, the other with a 37mm liquid projectile.

Gas guns are considered “second-shot accurate,” so you may have to adjust your aim after your first effort before you can penetrate. Some officers feel they get the greatest accuracy from the prone position, because of its stability. But because of your risk from ricochet hostile fire, this position should only be taken from behind cover. Some officers who work in cold climates believe they need to put liquid projectiles inside their shirts next to their bodies or wear special vests that accommodate them to keep them from freezing. That may have been necessary with old-style munitions, but chemical additives inserted now during the manufacturing process keep them from freezing. In fact, you should not wear or carry these projectiles in your chest area. If you are struck by hostile fire, the bullet passing through the gas round and then into your lungs can cause compounded damage. Even with the fastest-acting agent, the suspect’s incapacitation, at best, will not be instantaneous. He will likely have some time to react. He may see the hole caused by your 12 ga. chemical agent round or its spent container and think you're firing live shotgun ammunition at him...and fire back. (In fact, in the dark it’s easy for you to confuse gas

shells with regular shotgun shells. One difference is obvious when you shoot: a 12 ga. chemical agent round produces no recoil.) Offenders who’ve carefully planned their barricading may have protective masks (late model versions are on sale at nearly every gun show}. Or a streetwise subject may be able to defeat what you fire with running water. A barricader who has listened to prison bull sessions on police tactics may know how to get a continuous supply of fresh air by sticking his head in a toilet bowl and repeatedly flushing it or by putting his head in a sink under a towel with the faucet running or by hiding ina closet after sealing the door crack with wet towels. A Chicago barricader stood in his bathtub with the shower on to clear the air after his home 205

(top) An offender who preplanned. His protective mask and heavy clothing help protect against chemical agents being fired. (left) Another offender with a planned response. He clings to a windowsill after fleeing his hotel room where police had just fired in chemical agents. He later fell to the roof below.

was gassed. ..and was still fully capable of fighting when an entry team reached him. Try to get the water shut off in the barricade before you gas it. Even then, if entry is made, don’t assume the adversary is out of the game just because all has been quiet since gas was fired. In some

barricades, offenders may be able to use an air vent connec ted to a

furnace for a clean air supply. 206

(top) A 12 ga. shotgun with a scope is an ideal combination for penetrating accurately into small windows, basement air vents, etc. Effective range up to 50 yards. (above) An effective firing position with the 37mm gas gun. Note the weapon is cocked, the officer is behind cover and is wearing a mask. (left) For ease of handling, straighten the pin prior to pulling. Then save it in case it needs to be reinserted.

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Female suspect is being led from Chemical agents brought her out. your guard down. Note the entry remember to wear gloves for your

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her home where she had barricaded herself and fired shots. Even if you have what you believe to be the suspect, don’t let officer approaching low. In working with chemical agents, protection.

After a gas assault, keep in mind when you do go in that you may not know for sure where the suspect is or what condition he’s in. A Florida deputy discovered this fatally when he approached a fashionable suburban home where a domestic disturbance had turned into a barricading. After a gas barrage, the deputy thought the offender was still inside. Instead, he had escaped and was hiding behind a concrete wall. He opened up with a .223 cal. rifle that penetrated the deputy’s flak jacket and protective vest under his arm. Everyone on the inner perimeter should be masked when gas becomes part of a barricade scene. Munitions can malfunction. Also each time you fire a 12 ga. round, residue builds up in your shotgun barrel. In a heavy siege, it may create enough friction to break open a round upon firing. Your weapon won’t be damaged, but seeping vapor may get you full in the face. A long-sleeved shirt or coveralls can help protect other parts of your body. If you are exposed to gas without a protective mask, get to fresh air immediately and remove any exterior clothing that is contaminated. Face into the wind so the air has a chance to blow the gas particles off your face. If you wear contact lenses, remove them promptly or have someone else do it if your hands have been exposed; particles can penetrate some lenses and get behind others and burn your corneas. Do

not rub your skin. This will force particles into your pores where they’Il be harder to get rid of. Also do not apply first aid creams or ointment to contaminated areas, as these can coat the particles and trap them against your skin. Agents can best be flooded off with a solution of baking soda and water. Water alone has little effect and may actually carry the agent to other parts of the body. If you are wounded, life-threatening injuries should be treated first; 208

chemical agent contamination is strictly a secondary concern. There’s about one chance in 1,000 that you will experience an allergic reaction, like a bad poison ivy infection. This is most likely to occur if you are allergic to chicken products, such as feathers or eggs, or have experienced allergic reactions to influenza vaccine. In time, an allergic reaction, too, will pass. If you are asthmatic or have a bad cold, chemical agents may have a more serious impact that normal. (This, plus heart conditions and allergies, may also be a consideration where hostages are involved.) Any police or medical personnel who tend you while you are contaminated should wear protective masks, as particles of agent are easily spread from one person to another. Ideally, the local hospital should be prepared to treat in facilities such as a tent or plastic-sheeted “ready” room to avoid contaminating the full emergency room. After the barricade incident, your gas gun or shotgun will need “first aid,” too. Unburnt residue from discharging the munitions can eat into even stainless steel overnight. Use hot water and dispenser hand soap to clean the barrel, blow the last moisture out with an air hose, then treat with solvent and oil as you would any firearm. The action should be totally broken down and cleaned before its next use.

The remains of a 37mm gas gun too corroded to be used again.

Besides the active chemical agents used to control suspects, there are inert munitions available that simply produce billowy clouds of smoke. These grenade-shaped devices are sometimes used outside a barricade to mask team movements in large open areas. Be sure that you use only HC (hexochlorothane; color-coded yellow) for this purpose. NEVER use white phosphorus. Tactically, HC smoke is tricky to use. Wind moves it around a lot. In one case, an entry team released a thick cloud and was moving through it well-concealed toward a barricaded house. Fifteen feet from the edge of the house, wind coming over the roof sheared the smoke off like a knife, leaving a sudden, dangerous open gap between the officers and their destination. At other scenes, wind currents have thinned the smoke

above officers so that they were readily visible to suspects in upper 209

windows when they thought themselves hidden. Smoke works best in humid, still weather, because then it will hang in a low, thick concentration and last for hours. Fire small canisters first to accurately determine wind direction, then use more than you think you'll need to provide you with concealment. Don’t use it only in the area you’re moving through, though, or you'll tip the suspect to your location...and potentially draw his hostile fire into the smoke that surrounds you. Your concealment will be more effective if you can cloud an area at least half the size of a football field in two separate locations. The subject then may be distracted to the area where you are not concealed. Anything else tells him clearly, “Here we come, from this direction.” Remember that smoke comes in a pyrotechnic container and can start fires on grassy areas. In enclosed areas, it can be toxic. Smoke should never be used indoors.

Sniper

Control

As a response escalates, the first group of specialists deployed to position should be the officers who will serve, if needed, as snipers (or anti-snipers or marksmen, as they’re better referred to for public and

courtroom consumption). Their forceful presence helps underpin the gentler work of the negotiator and, usually even more critical, they and their partners serve as the single most reliable and important sources of information on the operation. Equipped with high-powered weapons and unique vantage points, they have the capability of “spying” directly on most of the action and passing on critical, detailed information. And, of course, they can take out a barricader with controlled, highly selective fire at the point where it’s judged that the only realistic means of eliminating his threat is to eliminate him. Commonly approved sniper weapons include .223, .270, .308 and .30-06 bolt-action rifles with a 3 x 9 variable scope and a sling. Some snipers prefer semi-automatic to bolt-action weapons, arguing that bolt manipulation may cause head movement off target and slow a second shot, if that is necessary. Sniper guns are different from any long guns carried by the entry team, which are intended to deliver large-volume fire to suppress a close-range assault. As a sniper, you want a rifle personally assigned to you that has a high degree of accuracy out to about 3,000 feet, even though that distance would never actually be used in a barricade situation. Open sights won’t do your job reliably. Even a good shooter with open sights will probably stand only about a 50-50 chance of delivering instantly incapacitating rounds at realistic sniper ranges. A small error in adjustment between your front and rear sights can make a big difference in where your rounds hit. An alignment that’s off just .0067inch at 25 yards will cause you to miss your intended target by a full inch. And here your objective definitely is one-shot stopping.

Your ammunition should be target match quality of a type that is 1) expansive and 2) fragmenting, to provide the greatest first-hit impact. (Incidentally, never mix even the same caliber and grain bullets from different manufacturers in your ammunition supply. All should have the same lot number from the same manufacturer. A slight difference in bullet points and powder charges can make 3 to 4 inches’ difference in point of impact at 100 yards.) 210

Some teams feel a sniper should be assigned automatically to each side of the barricade structure. More likely, though, manpower will permit only one or possibly two sniper locations. The first, guided by intelligence from the first responding officer or a scout team, should be where you can best observe and potentially target the suspect at his current location... where some defense can be provided against outright attack on you and the inner perimeter...and where you have at least effective concealment and ideally cover as well. Secondary locations should offer observation and target acquisition where the suspect seems most likely to move should he change location. If you can’t see the area you need to cover or if the action shifts, be flexible enough to redeploy, with command permission, by withdrawing along a protected route. Stay within 100-200 yards of the barricade. Beyond that, even witha scope, adversary identification will be difficult. In lining up a shot, you won’t be able to rely on the barricader’s clothing color for identification (he may switch clothes with a hostage). You’ll want to be able to distinguish his facial features.

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Be Panking ma REVCO a CUSTOMERS ig (left) Tactical officers prepare

to climb to the roof of a store where two hostages are being held. The ascending officer has no cover officer. The point is to gain the high ground advantage from an adjacent

building, not the one where the incident is occurring. (bottom) If you select a roof top as your marksman

location, avoid the

errors you see here: no scope, no forward observer, no ability to site in the offender without exposing position, and not

being ready.

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(above) Why deploy on top of a cold roof where you could be seen by the offenders from across the street when you could be inside, warm, and concealed? Also the shotgun is of little value for a marksman. (right) Here the high ground is perceived to be a location without cover and concealment. The news photographer had selected a better location.

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If there are multiple snipers, having each of you positioned higher than the suspect will eliminate the cross-fire risk; you'll shoot down rather than across toward each other. If you are all on the same level as the barricader, the primary sniper should be positioned first, with others offset slightly around the barricade so none is in line with another. Stay aware of all officer locations on the inner perimeter to avoid cross-fire tragedies. One deployment temptation that probably won’t work is to place two snipers at diagonal corners of a building and expect them to control four sides between them. This is appropriate—and effective— deployment for surveillance ONLY. For sniper purposes, it usually will not permit you an effective angle of fire to any side. Plus, with highpowered rifle ammunition, you may create a cross-fire threat. Also, despite the height advantage they may offer, rooflines should usually be considered taboo as sniper sites. Silhouetting is too easy there—as tragically shown by a Florida barricader who was threatening to blow up his house with explosives. As telephone negotiations were underway, he suddenly said he knew SWAT was outside and to prove it would kill the deputy on the roof across the street. Although the deputy was proned out low, the offender without further warning shot him square in the forehead with a scoped .223 rifle. If you must deploy on a roof, try to get behind a dormer or other projection you can peer and shoot

around. Some creative snipers have placed a cardboard box on a roof and positioned themselves behind it. At a distance at night, the barricader may mistake the box for duct work or a chimney. But this, of course, is only concealment, not true cover. OAD?

A better alternative usually will be to gain access to the inside of a another building from which you can observe the barricade. In a room in another house in the neighborhood, for example, you'll be protected from the weather, have more overall comfort and probably better cover, have more opportunity to move about without being seen and probably gain some flexibility as to shooting position. (On a roof, its configuration will dictate the position you'll have to take, which will probably be prone.) Don’t assume that distance alone hides you, though. A sergeant was at least 450 feet—roughly a block and a half—away from a barricade in Connecticut, yet came within a hair of being hit by a suspect with a scoped M-1 carbine. Probably the greatest single mistake made by officers at barricade calls is being in the line of fire and acting as if they are invisible. Don’t bench-rest your weapon on the window sill or stand at the window to look out. Try to stay back in shadow where no sunshine or outside light falls on either you or your gun barrel when it is in position. You may have to sacrifice some field of view, but you gain concealment. If you can’t escape light, having the window lowered may give you some protection because of the reflective nature of glass looking in. (Thoroughly knowing your weapon and ammunition will tell you what compensation you'll have to make, if any, should you need to shoot through the glass.) Some officers have been able to create a firing port from inside a building by removing a vent cover or, in extreme cases, by punching a hole in the wall. Positioned back from it and aiming through it, such a “mouse hole” gives you a wide view. Yet at a distance from the outside, it looks to the barricader like a black patch. Others have hung a piece of cheesecloth that they've painted grey over the window. They can see out through it, but the barricader can’t see in. However, this kind of device may draw the suspect’s attention because it will make the window you're behind unique. Once in position, the shooting stance you select may depend in part on the height of any objects between you and the suspect that you’ll have to sight—and shoot—over. Of course, you want to make the best use of your bone and muscle structures for assuming and maintaining any posture. Your options include: FREE STANDING. The least stable and probably least desirable position, but to increase stability, don’t face the target straight on. Bring your dominant leg back about 70°, feet shoulder-width apart. Don’t support the rifle with your arm fully extended, as some officers attempt. You'll be able to hold your position longer if you keep your elbow bent. The rigid part (bone side) of your upper arm should be lying against your side. If your shot is angled down, throw your hip out a bit to support your elbow. This can measurably increase your accuracy. So, of course, can the proper use of a sling, which should be incorporated any time you intend to place a bullet in a small area at any range. To check your stance, line up your target with your cheek firmly in position. Don’t crunch down to sight; bring the rifle up to you. Now lower it slightly, then raise it back up with your eyes closed. If you’re not still on target when you open your eyes, shift your foot back or forward a bit and it’ll adjust you properly. If you’re off too much one way or the other, you will develop shoulder and muscle strain trying to force the gun to the right alignment. PREFERRED-SIDE BARRICADE. As a sniper, you never shoot from behind a weak-side barricade. ..only from one that accommodates

preferred-hand shooting. You can position your support arm or hand 213

against it for better stability, but never lay the rifle barrel itself against the barricade (or against a sandbag, either, if one is available). The barrel whips when fired, and if it is touching anything the recoil will distort the flight of the bullet. If you do brace yourself against a barricade (or sandbag}, you want to be able to resume the same position if you move away from it. A small

piece of tape on your forearm can mark where it is supposed to touch. KNEELING. Upright kneeling, where one leg is against the floor or ground at a 90° angle and the other is up, bent at the knee, is very unstable. There’s too much strain on your back, and you can lose balance easily. Unless you need this position for the height it affords or unless it’s the only kneeling position you can assume because you are physically thick and inflexible, try sitting on your lowered leg, resting your buttocks back on your heel. If you put the toes of that foot out behind you, you'll be steadier, although perhaps less comfortable. Keep your elbow off your knee cap as you support your rifle. You never want to put bone against bone; it wobbles too much. Lean over enough so your knee cap is just below your triceps, the meaty part of your upper arm. Or, if you’re not that flexible, put your elbow behind the knee cap on the meaty part of your leg. Best yet, bring the elbow down on the inside of your knee, with your upper arm braced against your thigh. This tends to be steadiest. Avoid hunching forward to sight, sometimes a temptation if you’ve knelt too far behind a barricade and are straining forward to brace against it. This can produce neck stress that constricts blood flow to your brain, causing you to get dizzy, see spots, etc. At best, kneeling is not a long-term position. Theway it locks your legs up cuts circulation and fatigues them.

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An application of the kneeling position. In this situation, taking the highest ground was not possible. This marksman selected the roof of the next tallest building which necessitated his aim to be elevated. Note his body positioning to minimize detection.

SITTING. A good sitting position is a stable position. Probably the least desirable is to sit with your knees bent, feet spread, heels resting on floor. Here you lean forward with your elbows braced near your knees ... very clumsy, stressful, unstable. A better option is to turn your body to about a 45° angle to the target and sit cross-legged. Pull your feet up as close as possible to your body and brace your elbows on the meaty part of your legs, just behind your knees. This does not require much flexibility, but if it’s difficult for you, try sitting with your legs farther extended, your ankles crossed.

This is not the sitting position you want. If a photographer can see you this close, so can the bad guy. Your goal will be to have a concealed position, also avoid resting your rifle on your jacket and wearing reflecting sunglasses.

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An alternative is to sit in a straight-back chair and pull another one up in front of you. Tape a pillow or rolled towel across the top of the second chair to use as support for your gun. You can move to the edge of your chair so you straddle the support chair with your knees or you can sit at an angle in your chair. Either way gives you a solid position. PRONE. Probably your most stable position, if you can get into it, but desirable long-term only if you have a bipod or a bench rest like a sandbag or rolled up jacket. Otherwise, the tension on your neck will reduce your circulation and restrict your breathing, causing blurred vision, trembling and other erosions of accuracy. Angle your body off to one side with your legs spread out and keep your support arm directly under your rifle as much as possible. Lying flat, your heart beat may cause your muzzle to move up and down faintly. This will be evident in your scope. You can alleviate this somewhat by pulling your right leg up to lift your chest off the ground a little. An alternate prone position is with your legs straight back, so your whole body is in alignment with your rifle. Here you hold it almost directly in the center of your chest. It’s awkward and cricks your neck more, but it does reduce the amount of your body exposed potentially to ricochet fire. If you’re outdoors, try to get some insulation to lie on (an army blanket, a foam mat, a poncho) to protect you from hot or cold surfaces. Knee pads and elbow pads are good, too, especially if you’re crawling around on buildings. Like other tactical officers, you should not operate alone as a sniper. A partner should serve as your eyes and ears in monitoring both the barricade and the command post. With binoculars or a spotting scope, this “spotter” can see more than the limited view you have through the rifle scope and can assist in directing your shots. Over his portable, he can relay pertinent intelligence to command and screen feedback so your concentration is not disrupted. And with a weapon of his own capable of long-range, large-volume, rapid fire (like a Mini-14 or AR-15), he can provide cover for you and for personnel in the inner perimeter. 216

In this incident, officers set up to look for suspects hiding in a field. They’re using their van for a high ground view. But what’s missing is a spotter using the binoculars. Also turning the hat around eliminates the problem of blocked vision.

His vital role is illustrated by a confrontation in the Baltimore area. A young PCP user shot a civilian, killed one police officer and paralyzed another from the chest down, then barricaded himself in his house with multiple weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition and a survivalist’s supply of canned food. A rifle team was established outside behind a knoll, about 40 yards away. As they were observing, the suspect suddenly came to a window, knocked out the glass and beaded down on something out of the sniper’s field of view (later proved to be another police officer). “Do Ihave the green light?” the sniper demanded, his eye still glued to his scope. The spotter quickly confirmed it. Just then, the subject apparently spotted the rifle team and turned in their direction. The sniper squeezed his trigger. He was able to react immediately to the deadly threat, whereas if he’d been handling the radio transmission himself he might not have been able to maintain the necessary concentration on his Area of Responsibility because of separation of focus. Indeed, he might even have taken his eye from the scope momentarily. His first shot hit a chain link fence and disintegrated. The spotter, watching through binoculars, exclaimed: “He’s still up! It’s not a hit! It’s not a hit!” With that audio confirmation of his own visual, the sniper fired again within two seconds. This time his round struck center mass. The offender went down without getting off a shot. In communication between you and the spotter and back to command, sectorizing—numbering the components of the barricaded building—may conserve words and reduce confusion. Rather than referencing the sides and corners by direction, which may be unreliable in an unfamiliar area...at night...or when the building is irregularly shaped or set at an angle, one format is this: ey /

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A-1 always refers to the front side of the structure; that is, the street or address side. The other sides are then numbered in military-map fashion—counterclockwise...to your right as you’d face the building. (With circular buildings, consider dividing the structure into quadrants that would equate to four “sides”.) C-1 is always the left-hand corner on the A-1 side, with other corners also numbered counterclockwise around the building. Command personnel as well as tactical officers should have a sketch of the building, sectorized. Then if your spotter reports where he observes the subject by number designations, everyone understands immediately where he is. Where appropriate, your spotter can add landmark references (“That’s the window by the big tree”) to doubleassure clarity. As an alternative, some agencies only number the principal corners of a building (C1-4), and some, to keep things simpler, number clockwise. Understanding and using a consistent system is what’s important. Traditionally, sectorizing has called for floors to be numbered from the top of the building down. This is intended to prevent mistakes where the ground floor at the back of the building is at a different level than in the front. Like this:

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Floor 1 in sectorizing is considered the first level below the roof to which gas can be delivered or from which an offender can fire. Thus, a sealed attic would not normally be considered a floor. (Under stress, this “unnatural” numbering, unless it is thoroughly ingrained, may actually add to confusion rather than relieve it. If your community does not contain buildings of this configuration, you may be better off to stick with conventional floor designations.) Openings (windows, doors, etc.) are numbered left to right on each floor along each side of the structure. Thus the sliding glass doors on the structure above could technically be designated as “A-3, Floor 3, Opening 2.” Again, however, remember that clarity is the goal. If code makes your communication more complicated, you have defeated your purpose. (Another code that some departments favor is numbering their sniper teams, rather than referring to the spotters and/or snipers by name. Then if a shot is made and the press or other outsiders are monitoring the radio, the shooter’s identity is not revealed.) As your team’s surveillance of the barricader wears on, monotony, boredom and fatigue will be among your greatest enemies. You'll be saddled with a lot of “dynamic inactivity,” that is, doing nothing and resisting the temptation to “do something.” Idealists argue that snipers should be rotated so that each is in service only 20 to 30 minutes every four hours. This is impossible for practically any agency. One study suggests that snipers can be held at full alert for up to an hour before being called upon to fire without a significant effect on accuracy.' After that, deterioration of both accuracy and response time tend to set in. There’s no doubt, though, that you can’t steadily look through your rifle scope for very long even during the first hour. Images will get fuzzy, you may begin to hallucinate, headache may develop and certainly you will suffer painful muscle strain. During lulls in the action, pull off scope occasionally, warning your spotter that you’re doing so. The two of you should be capable of interchanging roles (but don’t interchange weapons). Rotate your neck.

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When the marksman takes a break in the mission, he can still observe the

location from behind a position of cover. 219

Take a series of deep breaths. Exercise your feet, calves, thighs, stomach, chest, arms—one group of body muscles at a time—alternately tensing and relaxing them. You can still maintain your basic shooting position in case you’re needed back on scope quickly. Medicinal drops and rotational exercises can refresh your eyes, but don’t rub them; that will cause blood vessels to break and increase their irritation. Under stress, you'll get thirsty; chewing gum will help keep your mouth moist. Aspirin will help relieve tired muscles and painful joints, and serve as an anti-inflammatory agent. And have some Band-Aids in your pocket, too. You may nick a hand while climbing to position or accidentally close your finger in your rifle bolt. Nothing is more disconcerting than trying to get a shot sighted with blood on your rifle! Watching the barricader, your spotter can alert you to potential danger cues that should pull you back on scope instantly. Such as: ¢ the offender grabbing a weapon...or putting a weapon to the head of a hostage...or looking out of a window with one in his hand; ¢a sudden change in the offender’s movement pattern, especially quick changes of location or quick looking around; * evidence of heightened anger, reflected in more assertive motions by the offender, or changes in his facial expression.

You’ll wonder: What’s making him do this? Has the negotiator given him an idea...or taken an idea away from him? What's his intent? And in case it’s imminently more deadly than before, get ready for the ultimate part of your job. The old concept of a sniper waiting for a “Green Light” command before using deadly force is now being abandoned by a growing number of experienced teams. This signal has proved fraught with problems, including confusion over the backup code system that usually accompanies it and misinterpretation of what is said because of radio breakup. What's becoming more current is this approach: From the beginning of any barricade situation, you and the others at the scene are automatically authorized to use the normal discretion given a police officer by your state law and departmental policy regarding the use of deadly force. Certainly that means you can shoot in selfdefense or in defense of another officer or civilian who is in risk of imminent serious bodily injury. That would include situations in which the suspect points a gun at an officer or hostage, or attacks them with any weapon capable of inflicting grave injury. In short, with justification, the decision about when to shoot is up to you. Beyond this, if the barricader’s threat is serious and persistent, some agencies authorize the use of deadly force at the first clear opportunity, regardless of whether defense of life is urgently required at that precise moment. For example, they may specify its use if the suspect crosses a “kill point.” That’s a line, generally outside the barricade, that has been predesignated as a boundary beyond which he can clearly be considered a danger to the public, say if he tries to escape. As a sniper, your purpose in shooting is to stop WITH CERTAINTY

any further activity by the suspect. You shoot to kill... with your first round. Top preference: a head shot that inflicts instant brain death and

severs nerves, thus preventing any further motor function. The suspect collapses upon impact and is still.

Because, unlike a paper target, a living suspect is never perfectly stationary, it may be monumentally difficult, even with a scope, to hit his 220

head precisely where you'd like. Still, you should try for idealized targets (preferred aim points) because a bullet that impacts one of these spots and then explodes inside his skull will have the highest guarantee of devastating effect. Practically speaking, an expanding, fragmenting, high-powered rifle round penetrating at some 1,800-2,500 feet per second anywhere within a 2- to 3-inch square surrounding these spots has an ultra-high probability of ending the incident. Just the traumatic shock effect to the skull cavity will almost certainly be lethal. So don’t feel “I don’t have a shot” if you can’t bead in exactly.

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What you’re hoping to sever or pulverize is his brain stem, the

“celery stalk” about an inch in diameter that joins the spinal column to the brain. Nerves that control motor function are channeled through there, and the lower third of the stem (the medulla) controls breathing and heartbeat. Hit here, he won’t experience even reflexive motor action. His entire body will instantly experience what doctors call “flaccid paralysis”; all his muscles will suddenly relax, incapable of any motion of any kind thereafter. Regardless of how the suspect is positioned relative to you, think in terms of shooting center mass to his head. According to a concensus of medical

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incapacitating effects of sniper shots to the head, there are different considerations depending on his head positioning. If he’s: pa

FACING YOU, your best aim points—virtually guaranteed to produce instantaneous death—are the tip of his nose or the center of the bridge of his nose. Actually, anywhere slightly to either side of a vertical line running from his nose tip to the top of his eyebrows is excellent, as is the area formed by a triangle between his eyes and nose tip. One advantage of the nose itself is that it’s cartilage... penetrable, like tissue paper. If the suspect happens to be looking down, then raise your aim point to his hairline, so the bullet’s pathway will be to the center of the back of his neck. 222

PROFILE, aim for his ear canal...or, alternately, his temple. If you hit right, you won’t have your bullet “softened” by the muscle tissue that’s below the ear lobe or the hard bone behind the ear. Gangsters in the Roaring ‘Twenties understood this pathway to the brain when they shoved ice picks in their enemies’ ears.

FACING AWAY, the preferred aim point is centered about | inch

below the base of his skull, right where his neck begins. If you shoot above a horizontal center line on the skull, your round may deflect...and be less than incapacitating.

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Usually you will have to adjust your aim point to the suspect’s stance, but occasionally you may get help from other officers in engineering him into the shot you prefer. In Louisiana, officers had negotiated an escape car for a barricaded bank robber. When he came out, a hostage in tow, everyone in the inner perimeter was silent. Then by prearrangement just as he reached the curb, a patrol car parked down the street sounded a siren yelp. Startled, the gunman turned to look—and presented a clear profile to the sniper, who took him out. So slight was the tolerance for error that the bullet actually creased the hostage’s face. Being at an elevated angle to the suspect, up to about 20 feet above him, should make no difference in your aim point...or in the results. Neither will the suspect’s gender; male/female anatomy is the same. One quick reading on whether your head shot has been successful is how your target falls. If he goes straight down, limp, or pitches forward, you have high assurance of fatality. If he falls to the side, you’re likely only to have partially incapacitated him. Almost never with a highpowered rifle round do you see the Hollywood phenomenon of the target being blown backwards. The pattern of kinetic energy being transferred within his skull from your shot just does not produce that result. Sometimes because of your angle to him, you won't be able to see the barricader’s head. Or maybe he’s moving too much or is too far away for you to feel confident of controlling a hit there (beyond about 115 feet, accuracy on a head shot diminishes significantly). Then instead of shooting at the smallest area with the greatest chance of incapacitating him (his head), shoot for the biggest: center mass to his chest. In Milwaukee, a barricaded subject with an officer as a hostage began firing shots at other police in the inner perimeter, vowing to “take out one of these assholes.” He was highly agitated, moving jerkily. The sniper feared he’d miss a head shot and, if he did, that the suspect would then kill the hostage. The sniper blasted him with a .308, center mass in the breastbone at armpit level. The suspect flipped a backward somersault like a circus performer (that can happen with chest hits}—and was dead before he hit the ground.

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